Flickr’s New App might very well be Android’s Instagram. Yahoo’s Flickr was not too happy with popular photo-sharing iPhone app Instagram for not releasing an Android version yet. So it launched its own Android app recently— complete with Instagram-like filters.
Instagram with its funky photo filters and Facebook and Twitter integration, has gained more than 10 million users in a year
Features of Flickr’s Android app:
The new Android app brings the Flickr photo stream to Google’s mobile OS. The company has included a new activity stream for viewing photos — one that’s essentially a newsfeed of activity among your Flickr friends. You can browse photo albums or check out the albums of friends.
Viewing an image on Flickr’s Android app is a different experience compared to its iPhone app. The Android app adds features such as likes, comments, photo data and a map showing where the photo was taken. Users can swipe left or right to browse a photo album. There is also a fullscreen experience for browsing photos that includes a slideshow feature.
The core feature of the app, of course, is photo-taking. Flickr has developed a new viewfinder screen. But there’s one feature that will catch everybody’s attention: photo filters.
The photo filters feature is almost identical to that of Instagram. The app comes with 10 filters that Spiering says are designed to “beautify” photos. They’re automatically uploaded to Flickr but can also be shared via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and email, reports Mashable.
The filters are Android-only for now, but we doubt it will be long until they make their way to Flickr’s iPhone app.
Flickr has 68 million registered users that have uploaded more than six billion photos. But newcomer Instagram has momentum and a very loyal user base. This should make for an interesting contest.
The Flickr Android app, available now free from the Android Market.
Photo Session
Flickr also launched a cool feature called Photo Session that allows users to see the same photos in real time. The feature works on computers and iOS devices by generating a unique URL that lasts 24 hours that you can share with up to 10 friends or family members.
Once the users join the Photo Session, the initiator can control the slideshow, so that the other users can see all interactions with the pictures in real time, from swiping between photos to zooming in or drawing.
There’s also a chat box at the bottom, but unfortunately no voice chat integration.
It is designed to replicate the experience of leafing through an old-fashioned photo album, even if the people who are browsing are located thousands of miles apart.
Any of Flickr's nearly 170 million users can activate a session by obtaining a special link that can be sent to other invitees.
A photo session can be done on iPhones, iPads and personal computers using the Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers. The feature doesn't currently work on Internet Explorer or Opera browsers. Photo Session also doesn't work on the new Android app, but Yahoo plans to address that shortcoming in future updates.
"Our mission is to speed innovation, to bring great new products to the market," Steve Douty, Yahoo's vice president of applications management told reporters Wednesday. "That is not going to change. We are moving ahead full steam just like we have before."
With its free Android app Yahoo shows a sign of its determination to become a bigger force on mobile phones and tablets.
