Twitter Launches New Camera Influenced by Instagram

Twitter is launching a new camera on its mobile app this week. The company is revamping how users share photos and videos on its network by making it much easier to access: a simple swipe.

Like Instagram, you can now swipe on the Twitter home to access the company’s new camera experience. But instead of swiping from the left, you swipe from the right to access the new camera on Twitter. Once opened, you are presented with a pretty barebones camera UI that lets you take photos/videos in a Snapchat-like UI or go into Periscope to live stream. The interface for switching between the different modes is much like how Instagram lets you switch between different camera modes on its app.

When you share photos and videos using the new camera, you can add captions to them. The new camera will also suggest hashtags based on context — so for example, if you are near a major conference, it will suggest you add that hashtag to your tweet.

See it? Tweet it! Our updated camera is just a swipe away, so you get the shot fast. Rolling out to all of you over the next few days. pic.twitter.com/moOEFO2nQq

— Twitter (@Twitter) March 13, 2019

And even though sharing content using the new camera doesn’t give your tweets an algorithmic boost, they do have a different appearance on the feed. Still, the new camera experience on Twitter is very, very basic. When compared to the ones on Instagram or Snapchat, you can’t really do much on Twitter’s camera. No stickers, no GIFs, or even emojis. You can, however, choose from six different colors for the caption background, reports TechCrunch.

Twitter’s new camera experience has a long way to go, but this seems like a good start. It’s possible Twitter will even look into launching its own clone of Instagram/Snapchat Stories, and that’s when it could get a little more interesting. For now, though, it’s just a simple camera UI. And yes, you can still upload photos and videos from your camera roll using the good old tweet composer.