Launching in September 2011, Flickr’s Android app took its time to come to the platform and since then has lacked behind its iPhone counterpart. However, Yahoo has pushed an new update today, overhauling its UI to add a new tabbar, new ways to explore, the editing of metadata and whole host of other new features.
Flickr for Android — which has now reached version 1.5 — delivers a Windows Phone style navigation experience, allowing you to swipe between photos and menus, as well as browsing the app’s improved Explore tab, which already groups photos by their ‘Interestingness’ and location.
The new tabbar borrows from iOS, listing individual notification, profile, photo, upload and Explore tabs, also incorporating the ‘Pull to Refresh’ feature that is present in a large number of iOS apps (and now many Android apps).
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The search function has been given an update and HTML content is now displayed in comments and photo descriptions. Users will also be asked to choose the camera app they wish to use to capture photos.
One of the most useful features to pro Flickr users will be the ability to edit metadata. With Flickr’s API allowing numerous apps to connect to their accounts, the new metadata function provides a simple and easy way for users to remove superflous information or edit erroneous details associated with their photos.
Yahoo continues to push filters on inside the Flickr app — a la Instagram — but with more lightweight apps and its major soon-to-be-Facebook-owned rival already on the platform, this may just be a half-hearted gesture to get users saving such images to their Flickr accounts.
Yahoo still needs to add the ability to search your own and friends’ streams, tags and descriptions but the new update goes a long way in improving the existing app.
➤ Flickr
[Image Credit: Paoletti]
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