It all sounds very antisocial: just days afterthe Facebook-owned Instagram removed photo "cards" which displayed its images on Twitter, the social-networking site responded by introducing its own set of artsy-looking photo filters.
Twitter said the new filters would allow users to more easily share what they care about through the self-expression photography provides. But the move intensified a slow-burning battle between the two networks that has been ongoing since April 2012, when Facebook announced the $1bn acquisition of Instagram. After Twitter revoked access to Instagram users wishing to add their Twitter contacts in July, Instagram responded by reporting more US-based daily mobile users than Twitter in August.
On Tuesday, things appeared to boil over as the Twitter cofounder Biz Stone indulged in some of the passive aggressiveness that is characteristic of his network, with a tongue-in-cheek tweet that was presumably aimed at Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom:
At a tech summit last week, Systrom mentioned the need for Instagram to take more control of user content. Therefore – not to be outdone in the battle to take your photos – Instagram released an update yesterday that offered new camera and filter features.
The new filters are nice, but that doesn't mean photographers faithful to Instagram will give up on working their way around the breakup in order to share their photos on Twitter. Exhibit A: an enterprising user of the social network connector service IFTTT has created a "recipe" which will essentially trick the networks into cooperation, and ensure that Instagram photos show up in Twitter streams:
Having to hack the system just to share a photo? Really? Here's what's clear: users are on the losing end in the battle over how they share their information – not to mention how their "content" is "controlled" – as tech companies scramble to make money from that information and in doing so cut off vital pipelines to each other. What wouldn't be surprising is if increasingly mobile users get tired of such changes and focus (pun entirely intended) instead on the next new, shiny thing.
More #Smarttakes
- How to use the IFTTT recipe
- Twitter-Instagram photo war reveals new business realities of social networks
