Multimedia messaging comes to Twitter in the U.K. thanks to Orange

Is this the beginning of the end for photo-sharing services TwitPic and YFrog?

U.K. Twitter users can now send multimedia messages and photos directly to Twitter with help from mobile operator Orange. If you’re a Orange U.K. user, just text the shortcode number ’86444′ with the phrase ‘START’ to initiate the service.

Then you can take a picture with your phone, send it to that shortcode, and it will be posted on an Orange-hosted site called Snapshot. Twitter doesn’t charge extra for the service, although standard MMS rates apply.

This is an interesting partnership — it doesn’t cost Twitter much as they’ve already integrated services like this before, plus Orange generates good will and publicity every time its customers use the service. But if Twitter strikes more deals like this in the U.S., its most popular photo-sharing services, like TwitPic and YFrog, could find themselves out of business.

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