Let the games begin, my friends. Due to API restrictions, Twitter is no longer allowing Instagram (META) app users to use the “Find Your Friends” feature to connect with their friends on Twitter. But Instagram doesn’t seem too bogged down by the news–possibly because it’s busy celebrating reaching 80 million users today.
The “Find Your Friends” feature is still available on other apps, including The Fancy and Foursquare. However, The Fancy only boast around one million users and Foursquare around 10 million, a fraction of the milestone Instagram reached today.
Given Instagram’s ever-expanding user base, Twitter may be unable to withstand the data pull from the “Find Your Friends” feature. Or, as TechCrunch speculates, it could be a conniving attack on Facebook’s latest pet. With Zuck set to acquire Instagram for $1 billion, Twitter may be pulling a few tricks against its competitors. (dick costolo’s probably cackling in his office right now.)
But this whole mafia-esque scenario does get a little incestuous – Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey (now CEO of Square) is also an investor in Instagram. Would he really be willing to kill his baby in the battle for social media dominance? Maybe so, if they can’t keep his site running without any bugs.
Meanwhile, Instagram seems content to toast over reaching its 80 million users and four billion photos shared benchmark, just three months after releasing its Android application. And Kevin Systrom told VentureBeat that they have “some pretty fun things in the pipeline.”
Betabeat has reached out to Twitter and Instagram and will update you when we hear more about this thrilling social networking drama.