Twitter has just announced an update for iOS, Android, and the web that’s all about putting more content in your actual tweet stream.

“We want to make it easier for everyone to experience those moments on Twitter. That’s why starting today, timelines on Twitter will be more visual and more engaging: previews of Twitter photos and videos from Vine will be front and center in Tweets. To see more of the photo or play the video, just tap,” says Twitter’s Michael Sippey.

What that means is that your timelines will not longer contain vine.co and pic.twitter.com links inside the tweets – instead, those images and videos will be displayed in rich media format, as a preview, right inside the tweets. Apart from making your timeline a lot more visual, this will probably make scrolling through hours worth of tweets a bit more challenging.

For now, Vine videos and Twitter pics are the only rich content that will be visually previewed in your stream.

Here’s how it will work:

The update is likely to annoy some users who follow people who constantly post images and videos – as it will cut down on the actual amount of tweet text they’re able to digest over any given period of time. But Twitter’s moving toward a more visual focus – and have been for some time. No matter how you feel about this update, your timeline will look a lot more visually appealing.

It’s hard not to think about promoted tweets and other forms of Twitter advertising with this update. By forcing visual previews of images and Vines, Twitter can assure advertisers that users are more likely to actually see their rich content.

A smaller change Twitter has brought to its apps and web experience still lands in the realm of wanting to put more goodies in your actual timeline. Starting now, you can favorite, reply, or retweet in-stream – without having to click through the tweet.

You can grab the iOS and Android update today – and you should notice the change in your web stream soon.

Image via Twitter Blog