I’m still falling down the well of Twitter, or is that falling into the Twitterverse? Anyway, I’d like to have a couple of different profile photos that I can switch between. Is this possible?
This is the kind of thing that’ll make Twitter even more fun, actually, some sort of pop-up menu of pre-loaded images a la emoticons that you can see in instant messenger clients with a range of smiley faces, etc. Maybe it’s a little retro high schooler in me, but I think that all the weird icons are great fun. 🙂
Unfortunately the Twitter clients I have seen do not support you spontaneously changing your Twitter icon on a whim, so I can only hope that’s something coming soon (perhaps inspired by this very blog post, who knows?!)
You can change your profile picture, however, it’s just a bit more effort.
In honor of Earth Day (22 April) I thought I’d change my own Twitter cartoon icon to a cartoon image of the earth, as a demonstration of how to change your own Twitter icon (you can find me on Twitter as DaveTaylor, and you’re welcome to follow me, yadda yadda. 🙂
First step is to find a suitable image, and to do that, I’m going to use my favorite image search tool, Google Image Search. My search: cartoon globe. Some great matches are right there on the first page, and I particularly like the globe image found at klineschool.com:
Problem is, is it in the public domain? Is it legal and safe to use it? That’s a hard one to say, and the Kline School itself is a private educational institution (images used on the Web site of a publicly funded school are most likely in the public domain if not otherwise copyright). Nonetheless, I’m going to make a rash assumption that I can use this image because it’s just for a twitter profile pic, not any sort of commercial enterprise. Plus, it really looks like some clipart out of Microsoft Office and I own that software so it’d give me republication rights to the artwork anyway.
Okay. So now we have a graphic we want to use. Next step is to save a copy of it onto my computer which is easily done by right-clicking (or, if you’re on a Mac, Control-clicking) on the image itself. You’ll get a pop-up menu like this:
Choose the highlighted option “Save Image As…” and specify a name you’ll remember and a location that you can find again on your hard disk. I usually just drop images onto my Desktop while I’m working with them.
Now it’s time to log in to Twitter and click on “Settings” on the top right. You are then shown the Twitter navigational tabs. Click on “Picture”, as shown here:
Click on “Browse…” then find and select the graphic you just saved from the Web, and click on “Save”. Your Web browser will now upload the image to Twitter and, after a few seconds, you should get the cheery message from the Twitter system that it worked and was accepted as your new profile picture:
Below it you can notice the new graphic is already in use. Send out a test Tweet and you’ll see your new icon in the timeline:
And that’s how it’s done. 🙂
Remember, if you seek more info on how to work with Twitter, I have lots of Twitter help here at AskDaveTaylor. And, yes, if you’d like, you can follow me on Twitter and learn about my scintillating life. 🙂
Total rubbish. sorry, its not possible to change the twitter picture by this method.
How do I change my Twitter profile picture from an iPhone?
Ram, if you can save the avatar from the other site as an image on your computer, you should then be able to upload it to Twitter, sure.
Kate, try using a different Web browser and see if it works better…
I am completely unable to change my profile pic, is this a glitch with the site? every time I click on “change this” nada happens. thoughts, commentary?
Is it possible to upload new image onto twitter as an avatar from a third party site? Newbie question
hi dave, i have a question. i am new to twitter & im still setting up. i cant find the pics ive sent to my twitpic account. i use the email i was given to email pics to my account but no success. please tell me how to send pics to my twitpic or twitter account. i need a profile pic…thank you in advance!
Can I change my photo from my blackberry
Was a good basic tip 🙂
Already following you in Twitter!
Greetings Dave,
What are the 10 best WordPress plugsins that should be installed in any new blog?
Many thanks,
Mark