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Whenever I try to upload a .png with transparent background on Twitter I am getting a white background. I tried to upload different sizes (24x24, 256x256, 512x512) but it didn't help. It appears Twitter re-sizes the image and the transparency is lost.

However some other profile pics with transparent background (uploaded in 2011) are working just fine.

How do I upload an avatar with transparent background?

I don't really care about bigger pics (73x73). I just want my timeline profile pics (48x48) to stay transparent.

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  • Did you try 73x73?
    – ale
    Jan 24, 2013 at 18:06
  • Yes ,I did. But it didn't help.
    – Khurshid Alam
    Jan 26, 2013 at 5:35

7 Answers 7

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depends on how you upload it, when I upload from Chrome/Firefox/Safari/IE/Opera on my windows computer it allows you to "resize" and gives you that horrid white background, when I do it from my Android phone using the official app, it maintains transparency (for .png anyway), also with Plume for Android. Hope that helps!

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  • Wow that really works. I successfully uploaded it (73x73) from official android app.It didn't ask for resize. Its transparent! Twitter is really forcing us to use their official app.
    – Khurshid Alam
    Feb 22, 2013 at 10:04
  • I used this method successfully - still didn't have the "main" profile 73x73 icon transparent, but the smaller ones in the timeline totally were.
    – Dave
    Jun 3, 2013 at 16:15
  • it worked for me with official twitter app and a PNG (8 bit) transparent. Not the 24 bit and not with tweetcaster either (or via web Chrome). Thanks.
    – luison
    Jun 13, 2013 at 10:49
  • Sadly does not work for iOS 9 nor Mac OS X El Capitan.
    – 2540625
    Sep 28, 2016 at 4:31
  • The official twitter app can no longer do this, but Plume still did the job for me just now. Thanks!
    – Rapti
    Feb 27, 2018 at 17:21
9

2021 solution: image must be 400x400 and PNG.

Example image

Example

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  • 1
    Yes it works for me in 2022! I used convert input.png -resize 400x400\! output.png to scale it and reuploaded. The white background is gone! Thank you a lot!
    – btwiuse
    Sep 3, 2022 at 10:21
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All I did was upload it through the web browser and when it asked me to resize it, I just clicked the back button on editing image and it kept the transparent background. Give that a try. IDK if this works on the app but it works on web twitter.

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This individual https://twitter.com/wongmjane just updated their profile pic to be transparent. They reverse engineer apps. I took that individual's photo they were using (attached) opened it in photoshop, put what I wanted, saved it, uploaded it, and it worked. profile pic

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Twitter just doesn't allow users to use transparent .png image anymore, since, maybe december 2012?. Nowadays they adapt this kinda thing where you can change zooms on the picture before uploading a new avatar. So i think using transparent background is useless for now. It'll always turn into white background anyway.

Too bad, cause actually avatars always look 9000 times more better with transparent background.

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1

2022: Use the EasyChirp client to upload your transparent .png profile picture.

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I tried uploading a .PNG image with some transparency but after the image was uploaded the transparency no longer there, but the image was still .PNG, so it means Twitter doesn't support images with transparency and we can't just do it.

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2
  • Did you check it yourself or are you indeed guessing?
    – Jacob Jan Tuinstra
    Jan 24, 2013 at 18:18
  • 1
    If twitter doesn't support png with transparent background, how come older profile pics(48x48) still remain transparent (for exmp: twitter askubuntu)? I don't really care about bigger pics(73x73). I just want my timeline profile pics(48x48) to stay transparent.
    – Khurshid Alam
    Jan 26, 2013 at 5:44

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