I’ve been wondering for so long now why Instagram is taking its time to release an Android app. Streamzoo is slowly but surely building a crowd of cool users uploading and sharing great photos taken using their Android phones. Now, another photo-sharing app has been released and it happens to be the mobile application of one of the oldest photo-sharing site on the web. I’m talking about Flickr.
Yes, one of Yahoo’s steadiest web service, Flickr now has an Android app. It’s out there in the Android Market and pretty soon, together with Streamzoo and other similar apps will beat Instagram at its own game.
Flickr for Android is a simple and yet very functional photo-sharing app with photo filtering/editing feature similar to Instagram and Streamzoo. I’m loving the app so far. It’s simpler than Streamzoo and yet offers the some nice features. What I like about Flickr for Android is that it brings my Flickr Pro account back to life. Should you get it? Read our review of the Flickr for Android to find out.
Flickr for Android May Disappoint Instagram Users
Features of Flickr for Android
If you’re an iPhone user, Instagram is probably one of your most used app. And then you shifted to Android hoping that you’ll get the same app. Sorry to disappoint you but you’ll not get it on your Android phone. Streamzoo and Flickr are both Instagram-esque app, but thankfully, both did not clone Instagram.
Flickr for Android has some basic photo filters, tagging and geo-tagging features. In fact, these are at par with what Instagram can do.
The app also has a pretty good sharing feature. Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr are all supported and it’s just a matter of authenticating the app to login to your accounts in those sites. You can also post it on your WordPress blog or share via email. Do it once and it will just be a matter of ticking the service the next time you uploaded a photo and wanted to share it with your friends.
Of course, your friends and contacts can always see the photos you’ve uploaded directly on your Flickr account if they subscribe to your updates on the site.
Using Flickr for Android
The first time you fire up the app, you’ll need to log in to your Flickr account. You’ll do this one time only because the next time you open the app, you will be automatically signed in to your account. The app’s main screen displays your user account on top and just below are your account’s latest activity.
You can then select the next display screen which shows your Flickr Contacts list. Like the Flickr web service, the list displays the most recently uploaded photos by your contacts. Then you can shift to your Account’s view, showing your Photostream, Favorite photos, Sets, Contacts, and Contacts. You can pretty much tap on any of the photos in those options to explore about the details of the photos.
Individual photo pages are pretty much the same as the Flickr web service. You’ll see various information such as the statistics graph of the activities of your photos, number of comments, and number of users who have marked your photos as favorite. Unfortunately, while viewing a photo, you can’t comment or like it at once, like Instagram and Streamzoo. You need to tap on your phone’s menu options and select “add comment.” Then you’ll be brought to the commenting screen to add your comment. It would have been better if the app will allow you to comment or like a photo just by tapping on the screen. The other options on the Menu include sharing, downloads and details about your photos.
The last option that you can tap on is the camera icon, which will bring up the app’s camera interface and will let you start capturing photos, apply filters and share your photos.
Camera Interface and the Photo Filters
The app’s camera interface is pretty simple. You have the shutter button and on the opposite end are four icons – Flickr home button, your phone’s photo gallery, flash on/off, and the photo size option.
Once you’re ready to go, tap on the shutter button and in a snap the app will take the photo and displays it right away. Then you’ll see the different photo filters available. There are currently 11 photo filters that you can apply to your photo. Flickr chose to name this photo filters by city to make it different from other photo apps.
Before you upload your photo to Flickr, you can also name it, add some details about the photo including Title, Description, Tags, Geo-tag and set who can see your photo.
Then you’ll be given an option to choose which sites you want to share your photos with. Then the app will upload your photos and save it to your Flickr account.
Good Start, But Flickr for Android Could Be Better
Overall, Flickr for Android is a pretty good start. I don’t know what Yahoo’s plan is for this app but hopefully there will be more features to be added soon. The existing photo filters are good enough, but I’m pretty sure the app’s developers can still come up with some more good filters to add.
Another area for improvement is the sharing aspect of the app. Like I said, the commenting/liking feature needs to be enhanced. The developers should take note of the sharing features of both Instagram and Streamzoo. Both have robust and more vibrant sharing options.
The question now is, should you download Flickr for Android? It depends on how addicted you are to photo sharing apps. And it will also depend on whether you have an existing Flickr account which have remained inactive for quite some time now.
I have a Flickr PRO account which I used for dumping event photos but I haven’t updated it for quite some time now. With this app, I could see my Flickr account becoming updated more often again.
Download the Flickr app from the Android Market
Start a barcode (QR code) scanner on your phone and scan the QR code below. This will take you directly to the Android market to download the app. If you do not have a QR Code scanner app, choose one from theBest QR Code Scanner Apps for Android.
Get Flickr App from the Android Market
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