Twitter Takes On Instagram With New Photo Filters

Twitter has officially rolled out its new library of retro filters for its Android and iPhone apps. The release comes just days after the social media service lost the ability to display Instagram images.

In a blog post to introduce the new filters, Twitter senior designer Coleen Baik wrote:

“Starting today, you’ll be able to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter. The latest versions of Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android introduce a few new ways to enhance the images you tweet.”

Baik added that users would now be able to use black & white, high contrast, desaturated and vintage filters, along with four others. There are also cropping and auto-adjust options, as well as a grid view that shows how each filter would affect a photo.

While such photo-tweaking filters are nothing new, many see this as the latest maneuver in Twitter’s battle with Facebook, which acquired Instagram in April.

Instagram’s photo filters have proven to be wildly popular, giving users a quick and easy way to edit photos without meddling in a photo editor. The retro filter, the most commonly used of Instagram’s selection, has helped the photo sharing service rack up more than 150 million users.

Since Sunday, Instagram pictures have no longer appeared in Twitter posts – instead, the image is replaced with a link to the photo on Instagram’s site.

The launch of Twitter’s photo filters will mean users will no longer have to launch Instagram separately to add a picture to their tweet. The ability to attach photos to tweets was first introduced 18 months ago.

Those with an Android device can access the updated Twitter app now in the Google Play store. It is expected to arrive shortly in Apple’s App Store.

Are you a Twitter user? If so, will you make use of Twitter’s new photo filters?