I mostly use Twitter.com to tweet (sue me, I don’t like running too many desktop apps) and I noticed that something changed overnight. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what changed, exactly, but I wasn’t the only Twitter user who noticed.

Fortunately, Twitter IM application maker Bonfire tells us what the social networking company seemingly won’t – at least for the time being.

Twitter has apparently made subtle changes with regards to the interaction part of the Twitter.com equation (retweets, replies and favorites), automatically expanding the relevant functions bar under all tweets on mouse-over and now consistently displaying the buttons in the same place wherever you are on Twitter.com.

See the ‘Expand’ and ‘Collapse’ buttons in the screenshot below. The changes appear to have been made shortly after Twitter gave its ‘Discover’ tab a big upgrade to provide more context for users.

One false note: looking at the chatter about the UI changes happening on Twitter, it appears some users are inadvertently favoriting tweets now.

Important: the ‘Classic RT’ function in one of the screenshots below is due to a Google Chrome extension I have installed, so you likely won’t see it.

“Expand”, “Collapse” – REALLY TWITTER, REALLY?

— Erika Styles ♔ (@DopeBieber1D) May 2, 2012

According to Bonfire, there is another subtle change to the Twitter.com UI currently rolling out that could have an even bigger impact.

When someone you follow mentions a user that you don’t follow at the start of a tweet, the interaction usually gets filtered out of your stream.

Twitter has changed that, according to Bonfire, now showing conversations your friends have with people you do not follow on Twitter.com.

Important note: we’re currently not seeing this ourselves so far, but if it’s true that Twitter is rolling out that particular change to users gradually, that means you’ll soon be seeing a lot more tweets than you used to.

For some, this would mean more clutter and even more issues with trying to stay on top of what happens on Twitter – it’s hard enough to filter relevant content out of a stream when you follow a lot of people as things stand now.

Others will probably welcome the changes because it allows for more interaction and discovering new interesting people to follow (which is what Twitter would likely be shooting for, if the latter UI change is indeed happening).

Again: the second change is unconfirmed for now, but the changes to the interaction side of Twitter.com are definitely visible to most if not all users now.

We’ve contacted Twitter to learn more. If you’ve noticed these UI changes – or seen others – do let us know in the comments.

UPDATE: Here’s a tweet from a member of Twitter’s development team, indicating that action will no longer move around from tweet to tweet, and the timestamps now click through to permalinks again, as they used to before Twitter’s most recent redesign:

New tweet anatomy is out for Twitter.com—yay for actions not moving around on you! And, clickable timestamps to permalinks!

— Mark Otto (@mdo) May 1, 2012

The API for the popular iOS-only photo sharing app Instagram is a hit with developers and we’re a fan of some of the things we’re seeing from some of these creative folks.

Just a few days ago we told you about an awesome app called Pingram that lets you view Instagram photos from a view that is eerily similar to Pinterest. These types of apps are huge for Instagram in that more people are consuming photos on the service and getting interested about signing up.

An iOS app called Gramory has caught my eye for the way it displays photos, taking design cues from other recent popular apps. Over the past few months I’ve spent way less time taking photos using Instagram and more time browsing the pictures my friends are taking. Gramory makes browsing way easier than the official Instagram app does.

If only I could take a picture using it

The only issue I have with Gramory isn’t its fault at all, Instagram hasn’t opened up its API to allow other apps to take and post photos to its service. At the end of the day, it probably never will since its filters and features are what keep people coming back. However, Gramory is the first app that really made me wish I could just stay in it and take an Instagram pic.

If you’ve used Instagram, you’re familiar with the following user experience:

All of the navigation is at the bottom of the app and if you want to surf through the photos you’ve favorited, you have to tap the profile button on the right-hand side and dig your way through to the option. It’s pretty much the same navigation that has been in the app since it launched. Needless to say, I’m not a fan of Instagram’s user experience.

What Gramory has done is adopt the side-load navigation style that we’re seeing in apps like Path, Facebook, and the new AP Mobile app.

By making the navigation pop out of the left-hand side of the screen, Gramory gives you extra screen real estate when viewing photos as well as uncover some great navigation options like search and favorites:

With more extra space and photo viewing area, the app also hides sharing options for Twitter, Facebook, Email and text message. Simply pull the page down like you’re performing a refresh and the options will show up. There is no wasting space at all with Gramory and that’s what I like about it.

Instagram has clearly had a ton of success with its app and I doubt that the company will rip it to shreds anytime soon as far as design, but hopefully it’s watching what some of these third-party developers are doing with its API. I keep trying to take a picture using Gramory though. Darn.

➤ Gramory for iOS

Today, Google announced an update to one of its most popular APIs, Google Calendars. Integration of Google Calendar into other apps has become popular, namely among those who focus on task management software.

The company had this to say about its Calendar API Update:

The Google Calendar API is one of Google’s most used APIs. Today, we’re rolling out a new version of the API that will give developers even more reasons to use it. Version three of the Google Calendar API provides several improvements over previous versions of the API:

• Lightweight resource representation in JSON
• Consistent and comprehensive reference documentation
• Improved support for recurring events
• Ability to manipulate default reminders on calendars
• Access to the new UI and event colors

Google Calendar recently updated its design, and allows you to color-code events, so including those items into its API is key for developers to update their own creations.

The company has done a wonderful job cleaning up its documentation, as well as offering support directly from the developers working on the various Google projects.

The team is hosting a live Google+ Hangout on November 30th from 8am-8:45am EST to talk about the new Calendar API and answer any questions that developers might have.

You’ve got Facebook to thank for this one.

I just spent a good hour and a half digging through various Facebook screenshots sent into us (I haven’t got the new UI yet), doing my best to explain all of its new features. Little did I know Facebook would have put together a perfectly good diagram explaining each and every one of them.

Click here or the image below for the large version.

Thanks Eric Stoller