Twitter integrates photo-sharing, plans galleries
Twitter has rolled out its own picture-posting service, so users can upload photos directly through the microblogging platform's website without going through a separate service.
Those visiting Twitter's website since Tuesday will find a camera icon next to their tweeting entry field, allowing images to be added to the tweet. The shots are themselves hosted by Photobucket, but the service is now integrated into Twitter's main interface.
Photos will show in a tweet as 'pic.twitter.com/xxxxxx'. Popular third-party photo upload services that are frequently used alongside Twitter, such as Twitpic, Flickr and yFrog will continue to be supported by the social network, Twitter said in a guide to the new service.
Regarding privacy, the guide also made clear that EXIF data is removed from photos when they are uploaded, and photos can be cut off from public viewing if the tweet carrying the photo URL is deleted — however, Twitter did note that such shots "may still be cached in some browsers and servers".
Twitter also said in the guide that it would be rolling out media galleries in the coming weeks, showing all pictures shared by a user on the network. These will include pic.twitter.com images, as well as those from other services such as Twitpic.
Third-party developers will get access to Twitter's new image upload API "shortly after we've rolled out the feature to all users", the guide added.