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Twitter adds more 'Cards' for app and photo gallery embeds

With the social network's expanded Cards feature, users can now see product information and photo galleries, and download an app, from a single tweet.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
2 min read
This shows an expanded Tweet with a photo from Flickr and a link directly below it that lets users download the Flickr app. Twitter

When you see a photo, article summary, or video in a tweet from a Web site, it most likely was done with a feature called Twitter Cards. The social network announced today that it's expanding this feature to include "deep-links" to mobile apps and also offer up some new Cards, such as product information and photo galleries.

"We first introduced expanded Tweets with three card types: summary, photo, and player/video," Twitter's head of platform, Jason Costa, wrote in a blog post. "Since then, we've heard that publishers want to be able to share different types of content. With these new card types, more publishers can show more types of content on Twitter."

Besides photo galleries, developers can also show information about their app or product, such as pricing, logos, and ratings -- all within a single tweet.

The "deep-link" to mobile apps feature is available from within any of the Cards. Instead of a link that takes users to a Web site, Twitter is letting apps be accessed directly from the tweet. "With mobile app deep-linking, users will be able to tap a link to either view content directly in your app, or download your app, depending on whether or not they have your app installed," Costa wrote.

The company rolled out Twitter Cards in June as a way for partner Web sites to present their content in a "more engaging way." Twitter Cards is currently being used by more than 10,000 developers, mobile apps, and Web sites, according to the social network. So far, Twitter has partnered with Etsy, Flickr, Foursquare, Path, Rovio's Angry Birds, Vine, and more for this new set of Cards.

Costa says the social network plans to keep developing more types of Cards. "The new Cards system lays a foundation that will make it easier for us to develop more types of Cards in the future and allow for greater customization by publishers and developers," he wrote.