Back in January, Twitter revealed that it had made a new branded font family for its products, called Chirp. (Get it — Twitter, Chirp?) After laying low for the last few months, based on user reports, that new Chirp font has started rolling out to the web version of Twitter starting today.
Twitter using Segoe UI on Windows (left) and Chirp on macOS (right).
The distinction between the old and new font sets vary. When it comes to some of the bold headers, it’s a little harder to spot the tweaks to letter shapes (and a difference in platform between these two screenshots could also affect some aspects of what you see), but the new font is visibly distinct and noticeable — hence all of today’s reports regarding the change. Twitter says it’s based on a blend of American Gothic and European Grotesque styles, striking a “balance between messy and sharp” that is both serious and fun. I don’t know whether I subscribe to all that descriptive hype, but it is a nice set of fonts.
twitter is testing out a new (i assume) commissioned typeface, it’s currently rolled out on my priv account. the typeface is called “chirp serif,” and the current fonts being used are chirp black, chirp bold, and chirp regular.
[new] chirp serif v.s. [default] segoe UI pic.twitter.com/QwWp4za19J— 𝇗𝇐𝇓𝇛𝆊𝆒 (@BOVINEDREAMZ) May 10, 2021
According to @BOVINEDREAMZ, the new fonts appearing for Twitter on the web are named Chirp Black, Chirp Bold, and Chirp Regular, all part of a general Chirp Serif family, replacing the Segoe UI that was used on Twitter for web on Windows previously.
Earlier this year, Twitter creative director Derrit DeRouen explained that we might eventually see Chirp appear as a typeface for the company’s product, but a precise timeframe for those plans wasn’t revealed. The new typeface was created together with Grilli Type, and it also supports a few fun features, like a ligature spotted by Jane Wong that turns [CHIRPBIRDICON] into the Twitter logo. However, that doesn’t seem to be live for us in testing today.
Twitter’s new “Chirp” font contains a ligature that turns [CHIRPBIRDICON] into the Twitter logo https://t.co/TgCRi804iK pic.twitter.com/SYDczXCBM5
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) January 28, 2021
User reports indicate that a wide rollout started late last night (Monday, 5/10), though the content of those reports aren’t detailed enough to determine any commonalities among those that have it. In our testing, it seems to be universally live on Twitter for web on macOS desktop devices, though it may also be present on other devices or platforms. Other details or requirements could affect the new font’s appearance, and Twitter has not formally acknowledged the font’s rollout that we can see.
