Chrome extension brings back Instagram photos to Twitter

That Instagram photos will no longer show up in Twitter users’ feeds has been grabbing headlines all day long. Elsewhere on the web, a Google Chrome extension, InstaTwit, is also generating some buzz. This Chrome extension quite plainly lets you see Instagram photos inside Twitter’s status cards. A description of the extension shares that “it is the easiest way to get Instagram photos back in your Twitter feed.” All you need to do is install the extension and refresh your Twitter window.  You can find the extension on the Chrome web store under Productivity section. 

Dwolla evangelist Michael Schonfelt has built InstaTwit. Quoting Schonfelt, a TNW report elaborates, “There’s nothing secret here: it scans the tweet text when you click to “open a card”. If it sees an Instagram link, it figures out the photo URL, and injects it right into the card.”

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Instagram photos back on Twitter

Hours ago, Schonfelt tweeted, “I just released a Chrome extension that adds Instagram photos back to http://Twitter.com  - check it out https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/instatwit/hhalcamddihdpdgdjkjbgikgobnbbpif …”

Reports about Instagram disabling photo integration with Twittersplashed across the web this morning. As per a blog post by Twitter, the micro blogging site states, “Instagram has disabled photo integration with Twitter. As a result, photos are no longer appearing in Tweets or user photo galleries. While tweeting links to Instagram photos is still possible, you can no longer view the photos on Twitter, as was previously the case.”

This new development took place over the last couple of days and when one went to view their images that had been uploaded on Twitter via Instagram, all they found was a link back to Instagram’s website. Instead of finding an image, users now see a white space where their photos previously appeared.

This move by Instagram is adopted so that users view the images on their dedicated website and not on Twitter. 

It was reported last week that the Instagram versus Twitter tussle has reached new heights, with Instagram disabling a feature that’s left their images on Twitter not showing up properly. 

This had prompted Twitter to put up a post stating, “Users are experiencing issues with viewing Instagram photos on Twitter. Issues include cropped images. This is due to Instagram disabling its Twitter cards integration, and as a result, photos are being displayed using a pre-cards experience. So, when users click on Tweets with an Instagram link, photos appear cropped.”

Instagram Chief Executive Kevin Systrom mentioned at the Le Web conference in Paris that Instagram’s relationship with Twitter is undergoing a change, but the service will remain integrated with Twitter in some form or the other. The main focus behind this move seems to be to push users to view images on Instagram’s own website.

“Really it’s about where do you go to consume that image, to interact with that image. We want that to be on Instagram,” said Systrom said at the conference. “What we realized over time is we really needed to have an awesome Web presence.”

Instagram started rolling out Facebook-like profiles on the web in early November. The profiles are mainly modelled over the Facebook timeline, with cover photos and the profile picture feature looking identical. The cover photo though runs recent images almost like a slideshow. Users can heart an image or comment on it – these web profiles were something Instagram users had been waiting for.