Twitter reportedly plans to release built-in photo filters for its mobile apps this month

Word began to spread last month that Twitter was planning to add photo filters to its mobile apps, and it looks like the popular microblogging service could be getting the upgrade before the end of the year. The news comes from AllThingsD, which also reports that filtered photos are already popping up in the timelines of people supposedly beta testing the new version of the app. The Next Web has noticed a few Twitter employees, including co-founder Jack Dorsey, posting pictures that have been filtered and are displayed in square dimensions, similar to Instagram Cards.

Competition between Instagram and Twitter has been heating up ever since the photo-sharing service was purchased by Facebook for a cool $1 billion. Now the two platforms are aggressively vying for your attention and pictures, even to the point of removing some features that previously linked the two services.