A messy divorce: no more Twitter cards for Instagram photos

The split between Twitter and Instagram just got uglier. The photo-sharing service has disabled the ability for the social network to properly share photos on website and apps.

In a status update, the social network confirmed that Instagram had disabled its Twitter cards integration. As a result, it said, photos are being displayed using a pre-cards experience. So, when people click on Tweets with an Instagram link, photos appear cropped.

For the moment, Instagram photos shared on Twitter will appear cropped, off-center, or not at all. It’s not clear if Instagram photos will disappear from the social network entirely.

As Nick Bilton of The New York Times notes, photo sharing has become a volatile battleground for social networks of late, with tensions only set to escalate as the arena becomes bigger.

Twitter and Instagram, once allies united in war against Facebook, have been engaged in a tit-for-tat style separation since the world’s largest social network bought out the photo-sharing service.

Back in August, Twitter cut off Instagram’s access to its API, meaning that it was no longer possible to ‘find friends on Twitter’ on the photo-sharing service. The social network has also reportedly been working on its own photo filters.

If you’re wondering who wins here, the answer is no one. The losers are you and me — the people who use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and couldn’t give less of a flying continental what about their corporate bickering.

Today at LeWeb Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom said this not “a consequence” of the service being acquired by Facebook.

He also points out that the company never said “nothing would change. I want to make sure our users have the best possible experience”.

Commenting that he wants to make sure that users data is in the right place, and says there is still integration with Twitter.

“We will always be integrated with Twitter in the way that you can tweet out a photo to Twitter,” he adds.