Twitter Nitro

Submission 15,342

Part of a series on Twitter / X. [View Related Entries]

About

Twitter Nitro refers to a fictional premium version of Twitter that allegedly allows users to upload working GIF files as profile pictures. The phrase began to rise in popularity on Twitter as a way to trick unknowing people into thinking it's a real thing, using Twitter Nitro as an explanation when users ask those with GIFs for profile pictures how their profile pictures are moving. The name is a direct reference to Discord's premium option, Discord Nitro.

Origin

Around June of 2012, a loophole on Twitter was found that allowed users to upload a working GIF as a profile picture by cropping it to a specific size. BuzzFeed^[1] published an article describing how to do this on June 20th, 2012. Shortly after the loophole was discovered it was patched by Twitter devs, however, those who had already uploaded working GIF profile pictures found they still worked. If a Twitter user has a GIF profile picture, they likely uploaded the profile picture when the loophole was still active and haven't changed it since. This is explained in more detail in a piece published to BuzzFeed News on April 27th, 2017.^[2] The first known use of the phrase "Twitter Nitro" in reference to GIF profile pictures was tweeted by WindowsNoku on November 15th, 2020, who commented on a tweet by user compromisation, who has a GIF for a profile picture, "How did you get Twitter Nitro?" (Shown below.)

On November 18th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user tgronpriv posted, "dudes be like 'how yo pfp moving?' its called i got twitter nitro mf" (shown below, note the moving profile picture). The tweet gained over 216,000 likes and 11,300 retweets.

The next day, tgronpriv tweeted^[4] a photoshopped screenshot of the subscriptions page on their iPhone as a comment to their original tweet, showing a monthly subscription to Twitter Nitro to further sell the joke (shown below). The tweet is captioned, "y'all thought i was playin."

Spread

Other Twitter users with GIF profile pictures began commenting under tgronpriv's post as it gained popularity, many playing along with the joke and claiming to have Twitter Nitro as well^[5]^[6]^[7] (example shown below).

Tgronpriv's tweet sparked an increased interest in GIF profile pictures, with many users asking how to get them following the tweet. The tweet and subsequent replies playing along also caused genuine confusion among users, wondering if Twitter Nitro is a real thing and how to get it in various posts and comments under tgronpriv's post^[8]^[9] (examples shown below, left and right).

On November 18th, 2020, Twitter user cloutandish posted a screenshot of a Google Trends graph for "Twitter Nitro,"^[10] showing a significant spike in search interest (shown below, left). On November 19th, mphyaku tweeted, "twitter nitro expired in 2012,"^[11] making reference to the year they closed the GIF loophole (shown below, right).

On November 19th, Discord replied to tgronpriv's post,^[12] writing, "this is the funniest tweet ive seen in a long time" (shown below).