Twitter is finally coming to terms with the popular photo sharing and editing app Instagram. Per reports, the popular microblogging service is now set to release its highly anticipated photo filters for mobile this month.

The company is now making a big push to release a series of photo filters to be used inside the official Twitter app before the end of the year, according to sources familiar with the matter. The aim now is to release the camera filters in an application update in time for the holiday season.

AllThingsD reported that that filtered photos are already popping up in the timelines of people supposedly beta testing the new version of the app. Moreover, The Next Web has also noticed a few Twitter employees, including co-founder Jack Dorsey, posting pictures that have been filtered and are displayed in square dimensions, something very similar to previous Instagram Cards.

“Why push it out before the new year? Perhaps Twitter wants a cut of the inevitable jump in photos we’ll see as everyone goes home for the holidays,” the AllThingsD report states. “Instagram, for instance, saw more than 200 Thanksgiving-related photos posted to its service every second on Thanksgiving Day alone, and ten million Thanksgiving photos posted overall that day. I’d imagine that number will only leap come Christmas and New Year’s.”

The Next Web believes that the insinuations of Twitter filters are potentially massive, alongside the upcoming release which is interestingly timed, as Instagram starts to direct users away from Twitter and onto its own, growing Web-based offering.

The site also states that Twitter appears to have realized that Instagram could make such a decision, and now it is looking to fill the gap. “Twitter stands to lose out on users spending time on its site if people are directed to Instagram, as hoards of Instagram fans become engaged on Instagram.com. Similarly, Twitter’s new filters could lure users away from Instagram, as the service gets cozier with Facebook.”

Both Instagram and Facebook have been in news for quite some time now. The competition between them started heating up even more ever since the photo-sharing service was purchased by Facebook for a cool $1 billion.