If you’ve been using Twitter for some time now, you know that they have this weird cropping algorithm when you try to post a photo. It will not show the entire picture on the Twitter feed and the algorithm chooses which part of the frame is shown. You can only see the entire photo when you click on it. But now it looks like Twitter is testing out a better way to upload photos by getting rid of that cropping feature. The social media platform is also testing out uploading photos in all its 4K resolution glory.
Twitter posted that they are testing out on Android and iOS devices that when you’re tweeting a single image, you’ll be able to see how it will look on the timeline even when you’re still in the composer. As long as it’s in a standard aspect ratio, it will be able to show the photo as it’s supposed to be shown. But those that have an unusually tall or wide aspect ratio will still be center-cropped. So it would be better to post an image that will not have to be cropped by the system.
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
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 10, 2021
They have previously received criticism over this cropping feature as the algorithm sometimes chooses weird parts of a photo to highlight when it’s uploaded and seen on the timeline. Not everyone actually goes on to click the image in full screen so it has resulted in some misunderstandings or funny fails when people just base what they see on the timeline. There has also been some accusations of racial bias in the algorithm that they use.
Twitter seems to also be testing the ability to upload images up to 4K resolution. Previously, you could upload it but they are automatically compressed. Now they can be displayed in their original resolution but you’ll have to manually enable it. Go to the high-quality image uploads option in the Data Usage section of the app. But since it’s still in the testing phase, not all users will be able to see that option.
They did not say specifically when these two new things will roll out to all Twitter users. Hopefully, it will be soon so creators like photographers, artists, or hobbyists will be able to showcase their photos on the platform in a better way.
