Instagram disables photo integration with Twitter

Images from social photo sharing app Instagram have disappeared from Twitter as the developers of Instagram have turned off support for the micro-blogging site.

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.

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Instagram disables viewing of images on Twitter

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.

Systrom said in a statement, “We are currently working on building the best experience for Instagram users. A handful of months ago, we supported Twitter Cards because we had a minimal Web presence. We’ve since launched several improvements to our [Web site] that allow users to directly engage with Instagram content through likes, comments, [and] hashtags, and now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives. We will continue to evaluate how to improve the experience with Twitter and Instagram photos. As has been the case, Instagram users will continue to be able to share to Twitter as they originally did before the Twitter Cards implementation.”

It appears that the separation between Instagram and Twitter is increasing at a rapid pace, and with the Facebook takeover of Instagram, the gap will only widen as Facebook aims to be the top dog in the social networking sphere.