By Toli Marchuk ·
How to try the HDR profile picture flicker on X
I saw someone’s profile picture flickering next to an HDR video on X. That sent me down the rabbit hole that became xhdr.
Observed as of November 2, 2026: an HDR avatar can appear to change brightness while an HDR video plays or moves through the feed. This is an interaction with the display and rendering path. Your PNG is still a static image.
Try it
- Generate and upload an HDR profile picture, then check that the saved avatar still shows HDR.
- Open my xhdr launch video on X.
- If you want to try the same setup, quote-post it from your account. Watch the video with your avatar visible beside it, then scroll it into and out of view.
You may see the avatar brighten, dim or flicker as the video plays. This is the effect I observed, not a guaranteed result for every account, browser or display. A quote-post does not animate your profile picture or add HDR to an SDR avatar.
Why it can happen
HDR video and still images can share a display’s available brightness headroom. Rendering and tone mapping may change as content starts playing or becomes visible. That is a possible explanation for the effect; we have not isolated X’s internal rendering behavior.
No flicker does not prove your export is wrong. Flicker does not prove an image has lost HDR either. Check the original, the saved avatar and the display separately. Chrome can show HDR in supported configurations; the browser name alone is not a reliable test.
A visual experiment, not a promise
Use the HDR check in xhdr to compare standard white and HDR white. If they look the same, the result is unconfirmed: tone mapping, settings or limited headroom may hide the difference. X can also change its upload or playback behavior after the date of this guide.