Make Instagram pictures display properly on Twitter

Use this simple IFTTT recipe to make your Instagram photos display the way they used to on Twitter.

You've probably noticed, or read, by now that Twitter and Instagram aren't really getting along all that well. Twitter originally blocked Instagram users' access to their Twitter friends. Then last week Instagram began disabling its integration with Twitter Cards, completely removing supportas of yesterday.

Now, when you or someone you follow sends an Instagram photo to Twitter, you'll only see a link to the photo (as you can see in the screenshot above). In the past, you'd see the entire photo directly in your Twitter timeline when using any official Twitter app or the Web site. This change is frustrating for Twitter and Instagram users alike.

Thankfully services such as IFTTT (If This, Then That) exist, making workarounds for situations like this possible. One such solution has already been published and it works like a charm.

As originally covered by TechCrunch, IFTTT user djbentley came up with a simple recipe that allows you to add a hash tag when posting an Instagram photo, which will in turn send it to Twitter and display it properly.

• To get started, head on over to IFTTT and sign up if you haven't already.
• Add this recipe to your account. During the process of adding the recipe, you'll need to allow IFTTT access to both your Instagram and Twitter accounts and pick a hash tag as a trigger. That's it.

Here's a new photo posted to Instagram with the hash tag I used when adding the IFTTT recipe to my account.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET)

In my example, I picked #restoreig. Going forward, whenever I tag an Instagram photos with #restoreig, IFTTT will automatically send it to Twitter, and the photo will display properly for my Twitter followers. Here's what the same tweet shown at the top of the post, the one with just a link and some text, looks like when sent through the recipe:

Here's what an Instagram photo looks like on Twitter when posted using the IFTTT recipe.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET)

This recipe works -- for now -- and will hopefully continue to work into the foreseeable future.