NYT: Twitter to Add Filters to Compete with Instagram

According to a report from the New York Times, Twitter is going to add filters to pictures to compete with Instagram:

In the coming months, Twitter plans to update its mobile applications to introduce filters for photos that will allow people to share altered images on Twitter and bypass Instagram, the popular mobilecentric photo-sharing network, according to people who work at the company but asked not to be named as they are not allowed to discuss unannounced projects.

Who would want to use these filters? The story notes the top celebrity and media personalities, known internally as V.I.T.’s or Very Important Tweeters would be eager to see the option to add filters to images via Twitter’s mobile apps, as opposed to sharing existing pictures via Instagram.

Also, Twitter is also looking into the possibility of adding a video upload service, akin to YouTube: 

Twitter is exploring adding other tools to its mobile applications, one employee said, including the ability to upload and possibly edit videos without having to go through a third-party application or service, like YouTube.

You may recall Facebook acquired Instagram for a whopping $1 billion dollars (it ended up being worth just over $700 million after Facebook’s stock dropped).

Would you be interested in posting pictures with filters directly via Twitter?