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Redesigned Flickr for iPhone adds filters two years after Instagram

Redesigned Flickr for iPhone adds filters two years after Instagram

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flickr 2.0
flickr 2.0

Yahoo has released version 2.0 of its iPhone Flickr client, which features a new UI and Instagram-like photo filters. The update incorporates many of the features web users are accustomed to, including photo editing powered by Aviary and "Groups," a big part of Flickr's social discovery and sharing system that, until now, has been missing from the iPhone client. A lot of the redesign is borrowed from the Android version, which saw a big update back in August.

Flickr's new filters come just days after Twitter added its own filters to its iOS and Android apps and Instagram released a big update for its iOS client. While it's easy to dismiss Flickr's inclusion of filters as a "me too" approach, the rest of the app has benefitted immensely from the redesign. Flickr for iPhone has a pretty dismal 2.5 out of 5 rating on the App Store presently, and from our brief experience with the new client it's vastly improved.

Update: Flickr has also made some visual changes to its website, which thankfully hasn't been ignored to the same extent as its iPhone app. The site's navigation bar has been revamped with a streamlined design the company claims leads to "a simpler and cleaner experience." There's also a new Explore page that aims to showcase the latest (and, more importantly, greatest) images uploaded to the photo service. Users can choose to view images from the last 24 hours or delve deeper into Flickr's history. If you're not seeing the new designs just yet, you will soon: Flickr says they're rolling out to all users in the next few days.