Twitter adds Instagram-style filters: What it means for you

Now you can give your tweeted photos an old-timey look. That might not be a good thing

Now on Twitter: Add a hipster filter to your smartphone photos.
(Image credit: Twitter)

In a blog post late Monday, Twitter revealed a new feature that lets users apply vintage filters to their photos through the service's iOS and Android smartphone applications. The announcement, which comes just a few days after the popular photo-filtering app Instagram yanked the ability to view its photos within Twitter's preview cards, is yet another salvo fired in what's become an increasingly heated war between the two former partners.

Starting today, Twitter users can apply one of eight filters — which range from "black & white" to "vintage" — to their images to add, in Twitter's words, "a new look and feel to your photos." Users can also pinch-to-zoom to focus attention on a photo's specific area, as well as auto-enhance an image to improve light balance and make colors pop.

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.