Twitter restores post previews on Instagram. The ability to place video captions over photos is making a comeback after being removed nearly a decade ago.
“They said it would never happen… Twitter Card previews start rolling out TODAY” tweeted the @Instagram account on Twitter.
They said it would never happen… Twitter Card previews start rolling out TODAY. 👀
Now, when you share an Instagram link on Twitter a preview of that post will appear. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/XSZRx9dzd1
— Instagram (@instagram) November 3, 2021
You can see it in the Instagram tweet embedded above: the Facebook-owned photo-sharing social media platform is once again allowing link previews from the service to be inserted into tweets on Twitter.
Twitter restores post previews on Instagram
Long-time Instagram and Twitter users might recall a similar function from the past.
Users could post a link to an Instagram photo and have an entire embed of the photograph appear in their tweet. There was no need to send your Twitter followers to Instagram in order for them to see the picture. The complete photograph was right there in the tweet, ready for everyone to view.
In December 2012, Instagram disabled the ability to view an image in its entirety. The company made it clear at the time that the shift was due to users being able to see Instagram content on a rival service in its entirety.
“We’ve decided that right now, what makes sense, is to direct our users to the Instagram Web site,” said an Instagram executive at the time.
It’s unclear why Instagram has decided to reintroduce link previews now. Is it time for Twitter Card previews to return? Is there a need for users’ overall good mood, given the stream of continuing negative media exposure from the Facebook whistleblower leaks?
Regardless of the cause, today’s Twitter Card previews are significantly different from yesterday’s full-photo embeds. Instagram links will now show link previews, just as YouTube links do on Twitter.
It’s not quite as good as it used to be, but it’s better than what Instagram links looked like on Twitter for the last 9 years: hyperlinked text.
