It’s now time for an update on Instagram because the “find friends” on Twitter feature is gone. This feature used to allow you to follow the same people you follow on Twitter also on Instagram. In light of this change, you are still able to use the “tweet photo” feature.
The feature is now gone because of the API restrictions from Twitter, which may be due to Instagram’s scale and its strain on data. Other social apps like Foursquare and The Fancy are still granted access to this part of the Twitter API, because it seems like Instagram was the largest developer using the Twitter Friend Graph.
It was a tough decision to make for Twitter seeing how Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey, is also an investor in Instagram, and both companies share Beckman as another investor. There is talk of this being a strategic move on Twitter’s part to counter Facebook’s social graph by limiting access to their latest acquisition, Instagram.
Still confused as to why Twitter is doing this? It is very unclear as to why, but a possibility could be to gain more control over photo sharing on its platform while limiting access that Facebook has. Twitter’s selective access to API by company will raise several eyebrows since it is very strange behavior in an ecosystem that thrives on API symbiosis.
Keep in mind that Facebook has done a similar move to Twitter back in 2010 when it blocked access to Facebook’s in-app friend finder feature. For more information on Twitter’s API wars, read our other blog post: Twitter Cuts Off Linkedin After a Two Year Partnership.
UPDATE- Twitter confirms:
“We understand that there’s great value associated with Twitter’s follow graph data, and we can confirm that it is no longer available within Instagram,” said Twitter spokeswoman, Carolyn Penner.
Source: techcrunch, Mashable