Twitter’s ‘follow’ button redesign is causing lots of confusion and unfollows

If you’ve had a rash of unfollows then re-follows on Twitter, well, you’re probably not alone.

Twitter dropped a redesign this week that switched up the display, changing the font and creating more visual contrast. In general, I’d describe the changes as relatively pedestrian — nothing like the shift in 2019 that caused a minor online uproar.

But there has been at least one major hiccup with 2021 redesign. The new version of Twitter changed how the “Follow” and “Following” button look. In short: the “Following” button is the same color of the apps background, which looks just like how “Follow” button used to look. That means lots of folks have now accidentally unfollowed people they already followed. It’s sort of a muscle-memory mistake because things look different at first glance.

For instance, here’s what my editor’s profile, who I follow, looks like in my mentions in dark mode. It looks confusingly like how someone used to look when you did not follow them.

Very confusing at first glance.
Credit: Screenshot: Twitter

Lots of folks have complained about the new design. There have seemingly been lots and lots of unfollows that were intended to be follows. Seriously, there have been a ton of tweets about it.

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So, beware out there, folks. The following and follow buttons are not as they might appear. As with anything online, take a second and think about what you’re set to do before you do it.