More ways to share photos on Twitter

You know the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”. On Twitter, a picture helps you convey a richer message in the space of 140 characters.

Our research on Tweets with photos from verified accounts indicates a 35% boost in Retweets, on average. You can take advantage of this boost by sharing photos on Twitter — here’s an overview of our newest photo-sharing features, and a refresher on some other tips for sharing your images.

We’ve announced two new features that make photos more social than ever: multiple photos in one Tweet, and photo tagging.

Multiple photos in one Tweet
You can now share multiple photos in one Tweet, which lets your followers get the big picture in one place. You can include up to four pictures, which will be displayed as a preview collage in your followers’ timelines; they can then expand to see each photo individually. The multiple photos will also be displayed if your Tweet gets retweeted or embedded on another site.

Photo tagging
You can now tag people in a picture (or collection of pictures) that you post. The tags don’t count towards your 140 character limit, so you have more room to express yourself. You can tag up to 10 people, and their names (not @username) will be displayed alongside the photo. As a default, anyone will be able to tag you if you have a public account; if desired, you can change that (to “only allow people I follow to tag me in photos” or “do not allow anyone to tag me in photos”) via your Settings.

These updates add to our existing tools and features to enhance your photos:

Filters
You can make your pictures look amazing by using Twitter’s photo filters. When you upload a photo using the Twitter mobile app for iOS or Android, simply tap on the image to see the editing options. There are eight creative filters to add style and mood to your photos, ranging from antique sepia tone to saturated colors, as well as a one-click auto-enhance tool and cropping tool.

Image preview
When you upload a photo via Twitter, it shows up right in the timeline of all your followers, letting them get an immediate glimpse into what you’re sharing. With one click or tap, they can expand the photo within the app, and easily retweet, favorite or comment on it. The image will also display when the Tweet is embedded on the web.

Image gallery
All your Twitter photos, along with Vine videos shared via Twitter, are viewable in a gallery through your profile. For example, scroll through our @TwitterData gallery to get a quick snapshot of images we’ve recently shared.

These features help make your photos more social, more beautiful and more engaging on Twitter — and help you build a stronger connection with your followers.

Do you know of other innovative uses of Twitter? Write to mediablog@twitter.com.