Twitter testing improved design to post photos and 4K support

Twitter is testing a new design to allow for better image previews and fewer cropped photos on Android and iOS.

“Now testing on Android and iOS: when you Tweet a single image, how the image appears in the Tweet composer is how it will look on the timeline, bigger and better,” the social media giant tweeted.

With this new design, images will show up in users’ timelines looking the same way they do when you upload and compose the tweet.

Twitter notes that it’s also testing ways for users to upload and view 4K images on Android and iOS. Users who are part of the test can update their high-quality image preferences in the ‘data usage’ settings.

Twitter currently automatically crops images to make them appear in a condensed and cohesive manner on timelines. This approach has led to some problems.

Now testing on Android and iOS: when you Tweet a single image, how the image appears in the Tweet composer is how it will look on the timeline –– bigger and better. pic.twitter.com/izI5S9VRdX

— Support (@Support) March 10, 2021

Last year, the social media giant investigated a possible racial bias in its photo preview algorithm after users found that photo previews appeared to favour white faces over Black faces when automatically cropping images.

Users found that once they posted images with a Black person’s face and a white person’s face, the photo previews displayed white peoples’ face more often. Twitter users then began to perform more informal tests, and discovered that the preview algorithm chose to display non-Black cartoon characters too.

The automatic cropping approach is also a hassle for artists and photographers who would prefer to have more control over how an image is presented.

It’s possible that these issues may be resolved with the new approach that Twitter is testing. However, since the new design is still in the testing phase, it’s unknown when or if it will roll out more widely.

Source: Twitter