Instagram photos have disappeared from Twitter as the photo-sharing service turned off its support for the Twitter Cards technology Sunday. Although users are still able to post links to their Instagram, the preview function within tweets has vanishing necessitating users to visit Instagram website or app to see the images,
"Instagram has disabled photo integration with Twitter. As a result, photos are no longer appearing in Tweets or user photo galleries," Twitter wrote in a status update. "While tweeting links to Instagram photos is still possible, you can no longer view the photos on Twitter, as was previously the case."
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to AllThingsD that Instagram has completely turned off its services for Twitter. The photo-sharing app, acquired earlier this year for $1 billion by Facebook, has over 80 million members on Apple's iOS devices and Google's Android devices. Twitter Cards is Twitter's attempt to creating a more media-centric experience for its users. The feature allows publishers and third-party applications to display photos, video and article text inside of tweets, rather than only sharing links inside of tweets.
The faceoff between Twitter and Instagram has been going on for a while now and it escalated to a new high when Instagram decided to turn off support for Twitter Card functionality for its photos last week. The move is attributed to Instagram's strategy shift whereby it wants its users to view their images on its own Web site and not on Twitter. "Really it's about where do you go to consume that image, to interact with that image. We want that to be on Instagram," , Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said at the LeWeb conference in Paris. "What we realized over time is we really needed to have an awesome Web presence."
However, Twitter is reportedly working on its own Instagram-rivaling functionality and is planning to introduce its own photo filters before the end of this year.
