Twitter strikes back at Facebook with free Instagram-style photo filters

The war between Facebook and Twitter heated up a notch as Twitter unveiled its own Instagram-style photo filters.

The feature, announced in a blog post, comes shortly after Facebook-owned Instagram prevented its images from being seen in Tweets.

The filters are built into new versions of Twitter's iOS and Android apps, adding up to eight filters to photos instantly and sharing them via Twitter.

Last week, Instagram photos stopped being visible on Twitter's site, linking back to Instagram's instead.


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Kevin Systrom, Instagram's CEO, said, "We believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives."

Instagram, which has 100 million users, was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion last year.

Twitter's new app offers similar features to Instagram, with filters called Warm, Cool and Vintage.

The app also allows users to crop and zoom in on images.

"Every day, millions of people come to Twitter to connect with the things they care about and find out what’s happening around the world," the company said in a blog post.

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"As one of the most compelling forms of self-expression, photos have long been an important part of these experiences."

"Starting today, you’ll be able to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter. The latest versions of Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android introduce a few new ways to enhance the images you tweet."