If you’re using Instagram to share photos on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed that the photos you post look like they’ve been cropped improperly. Before you panic, it’s not the end of the world.  No need to run down the street and show people what you ate for breakfast just because you can’t tweet it.

The reason behind this is that Instagram has disabled their Twitter cards integration, so photos are displayed in what you may call their raw form.  As a result, photos appear cropped of off-centered.

Twitter is aware of the issue as stated in a tweet:

“Users are experiencing issues with viewing Instagram photos on Twitter. Issues include cropped images. This is due to Instagram disabling its Twitter cards integration, and as a result, photos are being displayed using a pre-cards experience. So, when users click on Tweets with an Instagram link, photos appear cropped.”

No word yet from Instagram if this was intentional, if it will be a permanent thing, or they’re already working on a fix.

Twitter has more users than Instagram and losing the connection between the two would probably have Instagram on the losing end.

“I doubt this will be a long-standing issue for Instagram-Twitter users,” SiliconANGLE Senior Editor Kristen Nicole said about the issue.  “Twitter’s too big a platform for Instagram to ignore.”

Rivalry at its best

This is a long shot, but one possibility is that it could have something to do with rumors that Twitter is making their own photo-sharing tool that would trump Instagram.  A pre-emptive strike from Instagram to encourage photo-sharing on Facebook instead of Twitter?

Another possibility is that it’s Facebook’s form of revenge.  Not everyone on Twitter is on Facebook, so you can say Twitter is gnawing at Facebook’s success.  So if users want to share their Instagram photos to the rest of humanity, they would have to do it on Facebook, not Twitter since they’d look like crap on the microblogging site.

3 Instagram alternatives for sharing photos on Twitter

For those who love Twitter more than Instagram and Facebook, you can still share your photos on the microblogging site via these photo sharing services:

Burstn – a free app for iPhone but can also be used as a web app and offer photo filtering just like Instagram, that allows you to share on Twitter or Facebook.

Camera360 Ultimate – a free app for Android phones that also offers photo filtering and shares photos on Twitter and Facebook.

Steamzoo – this free app lets you share photos on Twitter, Facebook and anywhere on the web, available for iOS and Android, plus it allows you to put filters on photos so you can always make yourself feel like a professional photographer.  ;)