The lively bird at Twitter (News - Alert) now boasts the ability to edit how photos look before users post them on the timeline (TL). This move, which is similar to the photo sharing app Instagram, allows users to edit their avatars and other images using features such as filters, tones or brightness enhancers.

Apparently, Twitter seeks to obliterate the middleman ship of other photo editing solutions like Instagram by updating its mobile app to deliver this capability to users on its own. The move clearly aims at demarcating a boundary to keep off the increasingly alarming threat from Instagram.

In addition from trying to cut off the need to use Instagram by duplicating its photo editing capability, Twitter also deactivated a “Find Friends on Twitter” thread that was featured on Instagram. It is not our job to judge whether the ‘bird’ is playing fair or dirty, all we know is that Instagram users clicking on the Twitter connecting link after July find a negative response.


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The fact that Twitter has not cleared up the murk created by these rumors gives the public reason to formulate even more theories. What Twitter says to the matter is, "Twitter no longer allows its users to access this information in Instagram via the Twitter API. We apologize for any inconvenience."

The truth is that Twitter has reason to tremble at the mention of Instagram. For the first time ever, the Instagram user index beat that of Twitter (7.3 million for Instagram and 6.9 million), according to findings in the Comscore report published by AllThingsD in September. The study also showed that Instagram users spend more time online (257 minutes) than ‘Twipple’ who spent an average of 170 minutes tweeting from their phones.

Could Instagram be really threatening the melodious birds of Twitter? This is a question without a clear answer yet. Instagram might have a higher user index, but Twitter still leads with 29 million unique U.S. visitors with Instagram having 22 million (the findings are from the Comscore report that bases its data on the month of August).