• According to Twitter, Twitter is testing some iOS and Android users to “preview accurately” images.

On the timeline, where users often scroll without clicking on the image preview, the image is automatically cropped and displayed in a more condensed form. However, there are some problems with this method.

The biggest problem is that it turns out that there is a racial bias in Twitter’s algorithm that determines which part of the image to focus on.The algorithm prioritizes white faces over blacks in image previews, and in one testI cut off the face of the former presidentSometimes.

Related article: Prejudice problem emerges in Twitter and Zoom algorithms

Twitter’s automatic image processing is also a thorny issue for photographers and artists, who generally prefer complete control over how images are displayed. Image cropping is the difference between a photo getting attention or being completely ignored. Twitter also gives an example of a tweet about a dog where the image was cropped and disappeared, ruining the narrative tweet.

Apparently Twitter is trying to show more full images on the timeline. According to a tweet by the company’s chief design officer, Dantley Davis, you’ll notice that testing the new image cropping system doesn’t crop most single-image tweets with normal aspect ratios at all. On the other hand, ultra-wide or very portrait images are cropped near the center.

Instagram prefers portrait images, while Twitter prefers landscape images, which is good news for photographers and businesses who have had trouble switching between them. As you can see in the sample images, this change could make Twitter a richer visual platform. Images that occupy multiple tweets’ vertical space will increase scrolling, but it would be nice if you could get a more beautiful Twitter timeline by clicking on the images.

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