Twitter to Display Photos and Videos in Tweets Inside the Stream

Twitter is continuing to build its service and move into the territory of its third-party partners. After releasing its own mobile apps and its own URL shortener, Twitter is now exploring the option of adding inline media, photos and videos, as well. Of course, this may not mean that it's launching its own photo and video hosting service as well, most likely it will just mean that the Twitter stream is about to get populated with more than text and links.

For a short while, many Twitter users were able to access a new settings option. Under the “Tweet Media” title, users were able to choose to “show photos and videos from everyone.” The explanation below the checkbox read: “By default, you’ll only see images and videos shared by people you’re following, and reveal those by people you’re not. Check this box to see media from everyone on Twitter.”

The implications of this are pretty obvious even without an explanation from Twitter. After the first reports on the new feature surfaced, Twitter issued a statement confirming that it is experimenting with inline media.

“We’re constantly exploring features and settings. What you saw was a small test of a potential consumption setting for inline media. We show inline media on our own iPhone and Android apps,” Twitter said. The configuration option has since been removed and is not accessible for Twitter users, except perhaps for a few testers.

When the feature will go live, users will see the photos and videos in the tweets on Twitter.com rather than having to leave the site to view them. This should mean that users may end up spending more time on Twitter, always a plus for the site. However, it may also mean that the stream will become a lot more crowded. One of Twitter’s main draws is its simplicity so the site has to be very careful with any new feature that may end up cluttering the stream.