It appears that Twitter is working on adding Instagram style photo filters for users to change the photos look and share directly from within Twitter. The filters will work in a similar fashion to Instagram’s on filters, the same company that Twitter tried to buy before it got bought by rival network Facebook for some $720 million in early April 2012. Twitter had been looking to acquire another filter service, but instead have now chosen the cheaper option of rolling it out themselves, as first mentioned on The New York Times. Built in filters will allow users to change the style of photos without going onto another app. Its all about Twitter wanting and should host more of its own data rather than linking to 3rd party sites and apps; this is where other social networks have the lead in photo and video collecting and sharing. Twitter has always had photo uploading, but many have moved over to Instagrams appeal and photo manipulation abilities, leaving Twitter to play catch and bring those users back.

There is also the war going on over who and what has access to the networks respective APIs and features. Twitter has denied some feature that 3rd party apps can plug into and it may be on the receiving end of a ‘no go’ from Instagram, Facebook could block photos loading onto Twitters service. Its one thing to make give the same type of ability but another to make it simple to use, fast and enjoyable. Facebook may have the upper hand on this one because Instagram pushes to both networks it can block to Twitter if they launch their own, forcing users to chose – but most likely they would stay on something they already like using – or keep it as is and still keep the happy photo sharers. Twitter will be doing all it can to get some of the current 100 million users of Instagram back to using its own service.