The New Twitter has changed their interface. While this makes usability better for a variety of reasons, it is rendering the old custom background useless. Yes the backgrounds are still there, but effectively no one can see them.
The reason custom backgrounds are so important is that they allow you to incorporate branding with your social media activity. Unfortunately the change has rendered our beautiful branded backgrounds unusable.
Can you still have a custom background?
Yes! Though they are not as important as they once were. The new interface width is 1040px, leaving roughly 100px on the left for your branding. This is not a lot of room for design or information content.
Who will see my new custom background?
Not many people. Mobile devices will not see custom backgrounds at all. If you open a profile from your stream, New Twitter now opens it in the right side bar instead of going to their profile page. To see the full Twitter page you have to open your browser window all the way, meaning 1080px. Not everyone browses this way and not everyone’s screen is big enough, or set up, to open a window that large. Banyan Branch says that the full Twitter screen will only be viewed by an estimated 5% of Internet users.
How to Create a New Twitter Background?
Create a document that is 1980 x 1080 px.
Only 41-312 px will be visible. 41px are visible to all browsers and 312px are visible to 4.6%. Best to keep your content to 41-108px on the far left of the screen.
When you are done, save it as a .png
The New Twitter backgrounds are not as valuable as the old custom backgrounds. Your real estate has been significantly reduced along with the visibility. However, it is still important to have a custom background. It still helps branding. It still makes you look more professional and it can still drive business. So don’t toss the baby out with the bathwater. Keep a custom background, just boil it down to basics and make it clean and simple.