Twitter to Add Photo Filters, Compete With Instagram [REPORT]

Twitter, which once tried to buy Instagram, is set to launch a service that competes with it, according to one report.

The company is preparing a range of photo filters users can add to pictures uploaded to Twitter, several sources within the company told the New York Times. The update would be launched in the coming months, according to the sources. (There was no comment from Twitter’s official channels.)

Whether such a move would succeed — or blunt Instagram’s phenomenal growth (100 million users and counting) — is an open question. Instagram is a stream of photos and comments, with the emphasis placed on the pictures. Twitter is, in effect, the reverse: commentary with occasional pictures.

On Twitter, you have to click to get to the photos, and many of those are Instagrams to begin with. Another advantage Instagram has: you can post pictures to Facebook and Twitter simultaneously.

One area where Twitter could see an advantage, however, is if it adds the photo-filtering service to its website. Instagram still only allows uploads via its iPhone or Android apps, although one report back in July suggested that may be about to change.

Facebook was working on its own photo filtering app before the Instagram purchase, one which ultimately got poor marks from reviewers. Evidently, Instagram’s secret sauce — a combination of the right filters, easy sharing and fast loading — isn’t all that easy to replicate.

Would you use photo filters on Twitter if it offered them? Let us know in the comments.

Source: mashable.com