Twitter on Monday introduced the ability to add colour filters to user-uploaded photos, a step that sharpened its budding rivalry with Facebook Inc.
Although the new filters represent a modest product announcement affecting a small slice of Twitter's overall user experience, the move carries symbolic weight in the escalating battle between Facebook and Twitter for dominance in the social media sector.
Twitter's new release came days after Instagram unexpectedly said it would no longer allow Twitter to display Instagram photos within Twitter messages. The reason, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said, was to drive visitors to Instagram's own website.
Although Systrom told Reuters last week he had no specific plans to disclose how he plans to monetise his service, analysts say Instagram would be a rich vein of advertising revenue for Facebook when, not if, the world's No 1 social network decides to tap it.
Twitter said its new features are powered by Aviary, a New York-based company that develops image-editing software for photo-sharing platforms like Flickr, among others.
Since social networks began supporting photo integration in recent years, the medium has proved massively popular to users, while video-sharing,
2 Indian CEOs among world's most powerful people
Apple to return some Mac production to US in 2013
Apple's shares swallow BIGGEST LOSS in 4 years
Facebook to replace Infosys on Nasdaq 100 from Dec 12
Facebook in talks to buy Whatsapp: Report