If you’re having issues viewing some Instagram photos on Twitter, it’s not you. The company has confirmed that Instagram has disabled its Twitter cards, leaving Twitter unable to properly display images in its feeds.
Expanded tweets, or Twitter Cards, allow you to see content previews, photos, and videos directly within a tweet. Instagram photos are now being displayed using a pre-cards experience — usually resulting in a cropped photo.
In order to see a properly displayed Instagram photo on Twitter, individuals now have to click the URL provided in the tweet, which takes you directly to Instagram’s new web pages. Early reports hint that this move was related to the increasingly heated battle between Twitter and Facebook.
Prior to the social network’s acquisition of Instagram, Twitter and the photo-sharing service were on good terms. Since then, Twitter has blocked Instagram from being able to find Twitter friends through the service.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom took the stage at Le Web Paris a few moments ago and assured audience members that this was not retribution: “This is not a case of Facebook putting some sort of policy on Instagram. This is not a consequence of us getting acquired. this is a consequence of us doing the best thing for our business at this time.”
He went on to say that you will always be able to tweet out a photo from Instagram to Twitter. He also noted that there are no plans to display images any differently on Tumblr or Facebook. While this certainly isn’t a deal-breaker for members, it does put a strong emphasis on your Instagram web profile. If you have yet to start promoting your new page, now is the time.
