As of this week, Twitter offers photo filters inside its mobile app, a move that provides users with photo editing tools similar to those from Instagram — the Internet's hottest social photo sharing service.
How do the new Twitter filters stack up to Instagram's filters? Twitter has selected just eight filters from Aviary, a company that powers photo editing for many mobile apps, such as the new Flickr app and offers a standalone photo editor of its own. Instagram offers 18 of its own filters.
Taking the five most popular Instagram filters (Lo-Fi, X-Pro II, Amaro, Rise and Hudson), we sought the closest Twitter filter for each, along with a side-by-side comparison of each network's black-and-white options.
Overall, Instagram filters offer more subtle effects. For instance, Instagram's Hudson filter adds understated cool tones while Twitter's Cool filter turns a photo blue.
Twitter's Vignette is a pretty good match for Lo-Fi, the most widely used Instagram filter. And Twitter's black–and-white filter BW is an adequate substitute for Instagram's Willow and Inkwell. As for the rest of the filters, there's a noticeable difference, and one that favors Instagram.