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"Five-year-old startup Aviary made headlines Monday after Twitter unleashed its new photo filters and effects. Aviary provides the mobile-software development kit that Twitter uses to add photo-editing tools to its Android and iPhone apps.\nJust minutes before Aviary CEO Avi Muchnick left his New York City office Monday night to celebrate (see photo below), he gave Mashable insight into the news, which coincidentally came on the heels of Instagram introducing new tools and disabling support for Twitter cards.\n\"We've been working with Twitter for a few months,\" says Muchnick, who wouldn't elaborate on whether recent Instagram developments influenced the timing of Twitter's unveiling. \"We've kept things moving as it was always supposed to be moving.\"\n\nHes handsomer RT @dorothy_jean: @charitywater ball: @jack &amp; @avimuchnick fresh off @twitter and @aviary integration :) twitter.com/Dorothy_Jean/s\u2026\n\u2014 Avi Muchnick (@avimuchnick) December 11, 2012\n\nWhen asked whether Instagram swayed Twitter's timing, a Twitter spokesperson told us, \"No, we've been working with Aviary for months to introduce ways to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter.\"\nAviary, whose staff has grown to 21 employees since 2007, prepared for Monday's news by tweaking a statistic on its website, updating the number of photos edited in Aviary to 2 billion. \n\nThanks to the @twitter team for making this happen! @colbay @agarwal @mishal @spinlock @ritagarg @ryfar @tyip CHEERS!! twitter.com/namslam/status\u2026\n\u2014 Aviary (@Aviary) December 10, 2012\n\nAviary also has 25 million active monthly users, and partners with 2,500 applications such as Flickr, Yahoo Mail, Imgur, Twitpic, Shopify, RockMelt and MailChimp.\n\"Our mission is to democratize creativity, so everyone can make photos look great,\" Muchnick says. \"For Twitter, we enhance the photos people tweet.\"\nAviary started as a web-based tool before launching its photo-effects API last May, and then its mobile-software development kit last September. Those developments have helped Aviary rope in thousands of partners, which now include Twitter.\nAviary also released a Facebook app in January; it allows users to edit Facebook photos. \nMeanwhile on Monday night, this happened:\n\nTwitter founder @biz tweets a photo from @instagram the day @twitter launches their competitive product. Discuss. twitter.com/biz/status/278\u2026\n\u2014 Matt Galligan (@mg) December 11, 2012\n\nSEE ALSO: Face It, Instagram Is Replaceable | 'Look at This Instagram' Parody\n\nMashable toured Aviary's NYC office earlier this year. Here's a look back at the startup's home, where \"tiny fake birds peek out from fake shrubbery and perch on top of pipes.\"\n\n\nAviary Office Tour\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNeon Sign\nAviary's conference room is set up to look like a store, complete with a neon sign. This fits in with the outdoor theme of the rest of the office. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBird on a Wall\nThe most prominent feature in the office is a mural of a bird by the street artist Roa, who extended a trip to New York in order to paint it. Instead of paying for the mural, Aviary helped Roa change his flight.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Serious, But Fun Environment\nThough the office is stocked with standard startup office accessories such as a bean bag chair, beer and a big screen hooked up to video games (FIFA is the favorite), work was the focus of choice during our afternoon visit.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWork While Standing\nSeveral Aviary employees use stand-up desks. Good idea.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBird Fodder\nYet more bird related swag around the office.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBird Hunt\nThe Aviary office is discreetly teeming with bird toys. Walking around the office can turn into a scavenger hunt often ending with the exclamation, \"Oh, there's another one!\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKitchen\nAviary's kitchen cabinets are covered with amusing emails and tidbits. The prized item is a fake cover letter the CEO wrote as a joke that ended up going viral.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBusiness Cards\nEach member of the Aviary team has a different bird on his or her business card. The \"business people,\" for instance, all have cards featuring different birds of prey.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOffice Creativity\nOne particular strength displayed was a strong capability for freestyle Lego building. This small laptop caught our eye.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage via screenshot from Twitter's video announcement\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/12/10/aviary-twitter-photo-filters/>