You might not believe this, but it’s been 9 years since this feature was last available. It made the process of sharing your Instagram posts to Twitter a real nightmare. There was no preview option so your Instagram image would be posted as only a link. It wasn’t ideal for promoting your photos.
No longer will it appear as just URL text when you hit share from Instagram to Twitter. Instead now, you’ll see a preview of your Instagram post in the same way you would on any other platform. Both Twitter and Instagram are promoting this feature. It’s only taken almost a decade for this problem to be fixed. Better late than never right?
It turns out Instagram posts could once be viewed on Twitter as a preview, however once it was taken over by Meta (once Facebook) this was changed. They removed the preview feature and Instagram posts appeared as just text instead. It wasn’t ideal for content creators because visual images are what draws people in. It’s far less likely someone will follow a piece of text to find the image on another site.
Although this feature was stopped when Meta took over Instagram, apparently the decision was down to the former CEO Kevin Systrom. Meta didn’t make the move to turn off Twitter previews, this was done as a parting gift almost. It seems Twitter hit back after this. Shortly after, they turned off a feature allowing people to find your Twitter username through Instagram. Before this, you could scroll down Instagram and find your follower’s Twitter accounts. It almost seems like a relationship went sour. Both social media platforms hit out against each other.
It now seems that harmony has been restored, and we’re all friends again. About time really because it was only effecting their users who weren’t able to use these features they’d once appreciated. Thankfully Twitter and Instagram seem to be working nicely together, so it will be exciting to see what comes next. For now though, we’re just glad the preview feature is finally back.
