The social media wars are about to heat up again as Twitter is testing out full-size images in smartphone app user feeds in a bid to divert eyeball traffic away from Facebook, Snapchat, and, obviously, Instagram.
Not normally the first name you think about when it comes to digital media platforms, Twitter is nonetheless following the prevailing trend towards images and videos as the primary driver of content on social media platforms.
Twitter’s Chief Design Officer Dantley Davis tweeted about the testing phase, writing: “Today we’re launching a test to a small group on iOS and Android to give people an accurate preview of how their images will appear when they Tweet a photo.”
Previously, Twitter would crop images but those days may be long gone.
“People in the test will see that most Tweets with a single image in standard aspect ratio will appear uncropped when posted. People will see exactly what the image will look like in the composer tool before it’s posted. Very wide or tall images will be center-cropped,” Davis tweeted.
Davis further explained that his team is exploring other unrestricted media options on Twitter like ultra-wide pics.
As for why the company is testing this kind of change, the reasoning is quite clear. The competition not only offers a somewhat superior experience in this area but also are the go-to platforms for digital media creators and beyond. It will be interesting to see how this develops in the future.
Do you use Twitter for personal or business purposes? Do you think bringing more features to attract digital media creators will help the platform move the needle in its competition with Facebook for relevancy? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter in the comments below.
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[Twitter]
