Instagram has removed some of its photo-sharing abilities from Twitter, a move that some commentators are calling an escalation in the ongoing social network war. But Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom was quick to quell the rumours of increasing tension between companies by saying at LeWeb that “we will always be integrated with Twitter”, and telling Mashable that Instagram “are currently working on building the best experience for Instagram users.”
So let’s get down to brass tacks, what has actually changed? Instagram photos are normally displayed by Twitter as ‘cards’ – a feature which attaches media content to tweets with links in the timeline – but this functionality has now been pulled by the photo-sharing app. This means that Instagram photos shared on Twitter won’t necessarily display accurately, with some photo shapes being cropped.
Some have argued that this is Facebook’s handiwork, having acquired Instagram earlier this year. They may have a point. Systrom has said that this is not a consequence of the acquisition, but that the previous reliance on Twitter cards was “because we had a minimal web presence.” However, now that Instagram is developing a more engaging web-based user experience with – you guessed it – support for Facebook Likes, it’s hard to imagine that there was no input from Facebook at all. Systrom defended the position further by saying that Instagram feels that “the best experience [for users] is for us to link back to where the content lives.”
Do you agree with him? We’d like to hear from people who use Twitter to share their Instagram photos with what you think of the changes.