Twitter Launches An Improved Image Cropping Algorithm, Which Relies Less On AI

Twitter's cropping algorithm has been the butt-jokes of its many users.

Back in 2018, Twitter said that it cropped images by prioritizing face detection. So if users upload a photo of themselves, Twitter would consider the face as the main point of interest, and would make the background less of a priority.

And things can go weird because its algorithm was trained to focus on the most salient regions.

Among other reasons, this made the AI the algorithm depends on, less capable in cropping certain photos and pictures.

As a result, many considered the AI a racist.

After announcing the 'Responsible Machine Learning Initiative' to expose its AI biases, Twitter made an update to way it sees images, through a tweaked process of uploading images, so it can finally rid the annoying biases.

This sent many brands and businesses, as well as visual artists to celebrate on the social media.

It all began as a test back in March.

At that time, Twitter rolled out uncropped, larger images in users’ feeds.

After declaring that the tests are a success, Twitter is rolling out the updated uploading algorithm and process to everyone on both Twitter on Android and iOS.

First, images that use Twitter's standard aspect ratios, which are 16:9 and 4:3, won't be cropped. Twitter’s mobile apps also won’t crop tall or wide images with 2:1 and 3:4 aspect ratios any longer, allowing users to see more appropriate results.

With the update, users could finally display images in full without any cropping, or gambling on how an image will show up in people's timeline.

As long as they use images with the correct aspect ratio, the images should appear just like when they were taken.

Read Viewing And Uploading Images In 4K Finally Arrives To Twitter On Android And IOS

Second and most importantly, Twitter will also show users who wish to share an image, a preview of what the uploaded image will look like.

This allows users to make some final tweaks or decisions, before making the tweet live in the timeline.

It's this final addition that should resolve past concerns that Twitter’s algorithmic cropping was biased toward highlighting white faces.

“Today’s launch is a direct result of the feedback people shared with us last year that the way our algorithm cropped images wasn’t equitable,” Twitter spokesperson Lauren Alexander said.

Another way of saying it, allowing users to see a preview of how an image would look like, allows users to take control. This decreases the platform’s reliance on the automatic but flawed machine learning-based image cropping.

It should be noted though, that images that are too tall or too wide, will still get a centered crop. But Twitter said that its team is working to improve it too, along with other aspects, like how visual media should get displayed in the timeline.

Twitter’s Chief Design Officer Dantley Davis showcased this by tweeting an uncropped image of the Utah desert.