Flickr App Finally Launched in the App Store. No More Boring WebApps.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

We’ve waited for months and years for an official iPhone Flickr app, but all we’ve gotten are enhancements to its mobile web site. The lack of an official Flickr iPhone app seems bewildering as iPhone is currently the top camera that Flickr users choose to shoot and upload their pictures. Flickr’s absence in the App Store has even fostered a handful of developers to create Flickr based iPhone apps. But now, the wait is over. It looks like Yahoo finally got around to work on its own flickr app, and today, the official Flickr app goes live in the App Store.

When users first launch the flickr app, they will be treated to a slide show of popular pictures on its photo sharing platform. This sure beats the boring screen on its mobile site’s homepage. Users will be prompted to link the app to their flickr account. Mobile Safari will then launch and users will again visit flickr’s mobile site for account authorization. Luckily, it won’t take you to its mobile home page to relive those days of using its mobile web site. After you authorize the app on its website, the flickr iPhone app will immediately reopen. Now users can fully enjoy all of flickr app’s great features.

The flickr app will enable users to search for photos and videos. Just type in a keyword, and thumbnails of beautiful images will populate your screen. Users can touch the picture to go to a picture viewing mode that displays larger pictures and enables swiping gestures to move to the next image in your keyword search.

Users will be able to upload images as well. Flickr iPhone app finally enables user to upload pictures directly. Before the app came out, users have to awkwardly email pictures to a flickr created email address. The current uploading function allow users to enter title, description, tags, and sets, as well as current location when they upload their picture. Privacy options are also available at the time of uploading.

The app also integrates with your contacts. You can search, view, and share pictures with your contacts by going to the contacts menu. Your contacts’ recent images will even be demoed on the main slideshow.

iPhone’s flickr app is a nice free addition to flickr users. But this app has some limitations. Geotagging and photo date is only accurate at the time and place where you actually uploaded your pictures. Therefore, if you waited a few days to upload your picture, information may be all messed up. Finally, although the web app offers the function to look for photos taken near user’s location, the iPhone app lacks this feature.

That said, the flickr app is still a very useful tool for flickr users. It sure beats the boring mobile website. However, if users are looking for a photo aggregator app to upload photos to different social media sites, perhaps they should look into other iPhone apps such as Pixelpipe. Loyal flickr users should definitely check this app out. It should fulfill most flickr user’s need to share, upload, and view their pictures with ease.

Via the App Machine under flickr iphone app review