Twitter introduced its media upload API Monday to allow developers to attach images -- in PNG, JPG, and unanimated GIF formats -- to tweets.
The release comes ahead of Apple's Twitter-infused iOS 5 update, and is clearly intended to get app makers and users acclimated to the new photo-sharing option.
"Photos are a fundamental way that people share context, information, jokes, and personal moments on Twitter," Jason Costa, developer relations manager, wrote in a post on Twitter's developer blog. "Following last week’s wider release of photos to Twitter.com users, we’re ready to share our media upload API."
Twitter will also soon equip its own mobile apps with photo upload support, Costa says.
Twitter's photo-sharing and uploading service, powered by Photobucket, was pushed out to all users last week. It competes directly with Twitter photo-sharing apps such as Twitgoo, Lockerz, TwitPic and yFrog.
Developers wishing to leverage the Twitter photo upload API will need to adhere to the service's display guidelines and rate limits.