It looks like Yahoo wants Flickr to be the one stop app for creating and sharing photos, at least on the iPhone.
Yahoo has
updated its Flickr photo sharing app for iOS bringing a new set of features including preset filters, the ability to create one's own filters, an interface to take photos, and live filter previews enabling users to personalise their photos in addition to sharing them.
While the native camera app was pretty basic on iPhone, at least till iOS 6, third-party apps like Camera+ allowed users to take pictures in a different light and offered a plethora of personalisation options. Of course, Instagram made filters a household word.
Yahoo had
updated the Flickr app in December last year, introducing Instagram-like filters for the first time.
However, with the new Flickr app, Yahoo takes on all of these photo apps as it offers 14 filters that can be applied before and after shooting pictures. Each of these filters can be further customised by the user by tinkering with the settings for Vignette, Tilt Shift, Bursts and Worn. Users can even combine multiple filters.
In addition to the filters, the app now also offers new camera tools enabling users to compose their shots with different types of grids, pinch to zoom, and by offering the ability to lock the focus and exposure points.
After taking the picture, users can edit it by choosing to automatically enhance it, crop it in several different ways, change the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Exposure and White Balance, tinker with the Colour Balance, Levels and Sharpness.
The camera and editing tools offer new animated transitions while using the app.
The app also takes care of sharing, allowing users to share the picture through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and email, in addition to offering advanced options for arranging images in Sets and Groups, adding Tags and setting the safety level of photos.
The update is now available in the App Store.
It's worth pointing out that
Yahoo had acquired GhostBird Software, the company behind KitCam and PhotoForge2 picture-taking apps for the iPhone, with an aim to enhance Flickr, in June.
It appears that Yahoo has integrated features found in the apps with Flickr making it on par with other popular photo apps.
The development comes just months after Yahoo
unveiled a dusted-off design of its Flickr photo platform in May, overhauling the user interface of the service and offering 1TB storage space for users, free.