Flickr

Summary

You've all heard of Flickr, right? It's a Yahoo! service that allows photographers to share their photos with their contacts and, according to one's settings, with anyone browsing the internet. For a while Flickr even served as a portfolio platform for young and even semi-established photographers.

But what of the official Flickr Android app? Is it a must have for photography nuts? Let's find out after the jump.

Test device: Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Android version: 4.1.1
Root: No
Modifications: None

Recently one of my relatives returned home after an extended stay abroad. Rather than bombard us all with massive email attachments documenting his experience-abroad in over 600 pictures, he created a Flickr account and uploaded everything there, complete with titles and descriptions for each photo. This is where I was able to experience the convenience of a service such as Flickr – which successfully combines online photo albums and social network – first hand.

Once it's installed the official Flickr app is about 8.7 Mb and it requires quite a few permissions including location and sending messages. There may be lots of them, but to me all of the required permissions made sense to a certain degree.

In order to use Flickr as an active member (rather than simply browse through albums) you will have to register using either your Yahoo! Address, Facebook login or Gmail account.

The app is set up in a very straight forward manner, making a great impression right off the bat. It's organised into five sections:

1. Your personal newsfeed which tells you who's commented on your pics or added you to their favourites.
2. The photostream that displays all of your pictures. You can “flip” through your online album or show your friends when you're out and about. You can also read comments others have made on your photos as well as leave comments on other users' pics.
3. The camera with which can can shoot and edit pictures directly, including adding titles, descriptions and privacy settings. Flickr has obviously taken a leaf out of the Instagram Bible and even provides filters to apply to photos. My opinion: if you love the whole filter and other features spiel you'll find more options elsewhere (i.e. Instagram and co.).
4. Friends' newsfeeds. Check out what your Flickr contacts are up to (new photos and comments...).
5. The “discover” feature: this is where you can randomly check out other users' pictures. The feature includes a filter for users in your vicinity. There are some great photographers on Flickr, sharing their shots with others for free. It's pretty neat.

The app set-up is easy to grasp and easy to use, making it very user friendly. If only all apps were set up in such a clear and straight forward manner!

More features include adding photos to your stream from your smartphone's gallery and sharing Flickr photos via Facebook and Twitter.

Bottom line:

Flickr is an awesome app for those who use the Flickr service. It's well made and structured in a way that makes it easy to use.
Simply put: it's great option for keeping on top of what's going on in the Flickr world or showing your friends your photostream when you're on the go. The app runs smoothly and the app makes using Flickr even easier and more diversified.

As mentioned, Flickr is set up in a very user friendly manner. The intro is set up in five main chapters which makes the whole thing seem nice and neat.
As a result controls are pretty easy too. This is the kind of app you can download and jump right in without having to read a manual or watch a tutorial first.

Flickr runs smoothly overall. Whilst testing it on the Galaxy Nexus I experienced a momentary sputtering but then the app calmed down again and resumed its course fluidly.

Flickr is free and can be found in the App Center. There are no ad banners, either.