Roughly nine years ago, Instagram took the brave decision to stop allowing previews of its content on Twitter posts. This was just before the photo-sharing app was acquired by Facebook, and might’ve been taken out of pure pettiness. Back then, founder Kevin Systrom declared that Instagram posts shouldn’t be viewable via any other platform. This controversial measure is reportedly coming to an end, and the nine-year-long beef is now seemingly winding down, as Instagram has announced Twitter Card integration is now coming back.
Previews will once again be visible within tweets when sharing Instagram posts. Currently, pasting an Instagram link on Twitter results in no preview or card popping up. After the update, a card will appear under an Instagram link, together with a small preview of the image. It’s a small change, but one that will be greatly appreciated for those who wish to cross-promote content or simply share interesting photos.
The decision to remove Twitter card integration from Instagram links was always defended as a way to protect Instagram’s growth. However, the reversal is coming at the same time as several internal shakeups at Facebook, which is now called Meta. The company also took the decision to kill its controversial face recognition technology — people will no longer be recognized automatically in Facebook photos and the company will also delete data containing over a billion face recognition templates.
Meta seems to be more committed to actually respecting privacy (is it a trap?) and it also seems to want to play nicer with its competitors. Only time will tell if this strategy will actually pay off in terms of repairing its reputation.
Instagram previews should already be showing up on the web version of Twitter, as well as on the Android and iOS apps. I tried loading an Instagram link on a tweet but I’m not getting a preview just yet, so it might be a little while before the change shows up for everyone. To improve your chances, though, make sure your Twitter app is fully up-to-date.
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