Brave currently does not allow users to set a custom profile avatar, limiting usability and personalization in multi-profile setups.
Problem Statement
In real-world usage, especially with multiple profiles (e.g. work, private, testing), the inability to assign a custom avatar makes it harder to quickly distinguish between profiles.
The predefined avatar set is limited and does not scale well when users rely on visual identification as part of their workflow.
This leads to:
reduced clarity when switching profiles
increased cognitive load
higher likelihood of selecting the wrong profile
Real-World Use Cases
Work vs. Private separation
Users managing multiple contexts cannot visually distinguish profiles efficiently.
Professional environments
When using multiple accounts (e.g. different clients), custom avatars help avoid mistakes.
Power users / testing setups
Users running several parallel profiles lose an important orientation mechanism.
Current Behavior
Only predefined avatars are available
No option to upload or assign a custom image
Expected Behavior
Users should be able to:
set a custom image as profile avatar
visually distinguish profiles at a glance
use avatars as part of an efficient multi-profile workflow
Comparison
All other Chromium-based browsers (not to say almost all browser in general) allow more flexible profile identification or customization options.
This creates an inconsistency in expected behavior for users migrating to Brave.
Impact
While this may seem like a minor cosmetic feature, it has real usability implications:
affects daily workflows for multi-profile users
introduces unnecessary friction
reduces efficiency and clarity
Proposed Solution
Allow users to upload or assign a custom image as profile avatar
Integrate this into the existing profile management UI
Maintain fallback to default avatars if needed
User avoiding brave - at least in my surrounding
Closing
This feature would significantly improve usability for users relying on multiple profiles and align Brave more closely with user expectations for modern browser workflows.
Well written feedback. That said I would certainly put this in the Brave Feature Requests category rather than support – and remove the Bug tag because it’s not a bug.
Just a smidge of pushback on this bit – it’s actually not something that most browsers allow (surprisingly).
So yes, while I don’t disagree with you that allowing custom avatars would be ideal, I think its worth noting that this is not actually uncommon – it’s not like Brave is the “only browser” that doesn’t allow you to do this.
Thanks for the response, but I have to push back on the core argument.
You claim that ‘most browsers don’t allow this’ — but that’s simply incorrect. Here are screenshots from the four most widely used browsers, all showing a custom profile avatar in the toolbar:
Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge — all of them display a user-defined image. The user experience is consistent and clear: you know which profile you’re in at a glance.
In Brave, the end result for the user is identical regardless of whether the technical reason is ‘no real profile system’ or ‘profile system without upload support’: no custom avatar possible.
Regarding the bug tag: a bug is commonly defined as behavior that deviates from expected or established norms. When every major browser — Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge — supports custom profile avatars, the absence of this in Brave is a deviation from established, expected behavior. That qualifies as a bug from a user perspective, regardless of how it’s classified internally.
I’d hope Brave’s community support exists to surface real issues to the team, not to minimize them. And frankly, I’m not sure that dismissing straightforward UX feedback this way is in the best interest of the company or the product’s continued development.
Iam trying to help here - for free.
That said — I genuinely really like Brave and want to see it improve. This feedback comes from a place of goodwill, not frustration with you personally. I hope it’s taken in that spirit.
Yeah I take your point, but the custom images you’re showing are associated with your account and require you to sign in – which requires you provide them with information about you. Brave does not have any account sign in at this time and doesn’t require any information about you.
Again, I agree that we should allow custom avatar images and have pushed for us to make this change in the past. I just think its relevant to note the difference between profile image that is only associated with your browser profile vs one that is associated with a specific account you sign into.
If you use that same logic, then another browser behavior that has (unfortunately) become an established norm is tracking/collecting/selling your browsing data. Brave doesn’t collect, store, send or share any of your browsing data without explicit consent to do so and anything you do share is obfuscated/anonymous and can’t be traced back to you. Would you also call that a bug? Probably not.
The absence of a feature (or the addition of one) that another software has doesn’t qualify as a “bug” because different software deviate in a variety of different ways (and that’s a good thing) – those deviations are features of the individual software. The bit about “established norms and expected behavior” refers to norms/behaviors of the software you’re using, rather than a comparison between all other related softwares.
A more accurate definition of a “bug” in [any] software would be something like “an error, flaw, or unintended behavior in a program that causes it to produce incorrect results, behave unpredictably, or not function as intended”.
Thanks for the more detailed response — and genuinely appreciated that you’ve pushed for this internally. That’s exactly the kind of community-to-team feedback loop that makes a difference.
On the bug vs. feature debate — I’d rather not get lost in definitions. The point is simple and it’s a user perspective, not a technical one: I open Brave, I cannot tell my profiles apart at a glance the way I can in every other browser I use. That’s the gap.
We’re clearly on the same side here. Hope it lands with the team.
