Twitter is not really known for being a visual medium. But there is still a considerable number of photographers, artists, and meme sharers that are on the platform even if it isn’t really a friendly network for photos, art, and other visual tweets. They have a much-criticized habit of cropping images that are too “tall” and not giving users the control over what part to crop out. Now finally, they will be showing off the entire image in the preview and the tweet, given that it’s the right aspect ratio.
For creatives who are on Twitter, you no longer have to worry that the photo or artwork that you post can be misunderstood or not appreciated in its full glory. Twitter is finally introducing “bigger and better images” on its platform, tweeting out that no bird is too tall for them to crop it out. The images will be shown in full in the tweet’s preview so those who will not click on the tweet itself will still be able to see the image in its entirety.
no bird too tall, no crop too short
introducing bigger and better images on iOS and Android, now available to everyone pic.twitter.com/2buHfhfRAx
— Twitter (@Twitter) May 5, 2021
The only caveat here is that the images still have to be within the 2:1 or 3:4 aspect ratios. Those that don’t fit into that will still be cropped and it looks like you still do not have the control over what part of the image will show up in the preview. Some were afraid that there will be those who will “abuse” the full image preview feature by posting images that are extremely tall for one reason or another (mostly as a joke) so the aspect ratio limitation has to be implemented.
Recently, Twitter also rolled out support for uploading 4K images without compressing it for those creators like artists and photographers that want their images to be posted in its original quality. It looks like they want to court these kinds of creators and get back those who left because of the restrictions to how you tweet out pictures. Twitter is still a great way to interact with fans and they may also be launching some new monetization and subscription options for creators and their fans.
But for now, just enjoy tweeting out your photos and artwork without worrying about all that cropping. Twitter said the full image preview is now available for everyone on the Android app.