Twitpic's long and melodramatic goodbye has finally come to a close, but Twitpic has found the most unlikely savior to keep the memory of its name and photos intact - Twitter.
Just hours before the image sharing service was set to shut down for good on Oct. 25, Twitpic founder and CEO Noah Everett took to the Twitpic blog to bid adieu the service's users one last time and make one final announcement in the chaotic series of announcements that were made in the last couple of months. Twitter, the very same company responsible for Twitpic's decision to close up shop in the first place, will be acquiring Twitpic after all.
"I'm happy to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being," Everett says. "Twitter shares our goal of protecting our users and this data."
Everett says since both companies have the same users, it makes sense for Twitter to want to preserve the data uploaded and shared by Twitpic's users. However, the photos will only be available on the web in read-only mode, which means users can no longer upload new content via Twitpic or edit their existing photos. They still can delete their photos, download and export them and remove their Twitpic accounts if they wish to. As of press time, the Twitpic apps for iOS and Android are no longer available on the App Store and Play Store.
"This will be my (@noaheverett) final chapter with Twitpic, and again I want to say thank you for allowing me to be a part of your photo sharing memories for nearly seven years," says Everett. "It has been an honor."
The beginning of the end of Twitpic was marked by Twitter threatening to remove Twitpic's access to the microblogging platform's API, which, of course, is the whole foundation upon which the image sharing service was built. An earlier blog post by Everett said Twitter wanted the six-year-old startup to abandon its trademark application if it wants to continue doing business with Twitter. At that time, Everett said his company had no resources to battle it out with Twitter in court and so has decided to close down on Sept. 25.
However, just a week before the scheduled shutdown, Everett made a second announcement saying Twitpic was to live on because it has found a mysterious buyer to fund its survival. Finally, on Oct. 18, Everett said Twitpic was shutting down after all because the company and the unnamed buyer were unable to reach an agreement on the finances.
During its heyday, Twitpic was one of the most popular image sharing services on Twitter, even going to become a platform for citizen journalism. However, as Twitter expanded its own services and began supporting photos on its native platform, Twitpic and other services have increasingly become irrelevant.
