This morning the announcement by Instagram was made that when you share your Instagram photos via Twitter, they will no longer be properly displayed. Gah.
For people like me, who love sharing my Instagram photos on Twitter–and seeing those shared with me–I find it a little annoying. Not hugely so, but just enough.
Previously, you could click on a link and see the image pop up from which you can then click over to Instagram to see it full-screen, and to like or leave a comment. But with the change, Instagram photos will no longer be imbedded at all on Twitter, meaning no more preview. You will have to leave the Twitter app and go to the Instagram website to see it.
Why? Well, Facebook bought Instagram. Facebook wants more page views on Instagram. They do this by forcing you to click over to see the photo.
From a business perspective I don’t entirely blame them. But as a social media advocate, I think to some degree, the media belongs to the people. (Power to the people!) Really, I wish that Facebook overall was more responsive to how people actually use their platforms, and basing the user experience on that usage; as opposed to telling us how they want us to use their platforms which always creates a mess.
See also: Fan pages not showing up in your Facebook feed. Even and especially when you want them to. (Apologies to our own Facebook fans who contact us nearly daily about this issue. We wish we could fix it!)
It’s also interesting that Facebook, which already generates a lot of animosity and distrust, is taking a truly beloved app and starting to chip away at the features that helped to grow its fan base so quickly.
Things will only get interesting when Twitter, as reported recently, will introduce their own photo filters, perhaps cutting off the need for Instagram altogether for those who already have strong Twitter followings.
So does this matter for you? Is it a big deal or will you be happy to click onto another site to see your friends’ photos? –Liz
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