Flickr Releases Major Update to iOS App, Bringing Live Filters and Professional Editing Tools

Yahoo's image and video hosting website Flickr has released a major update to its iOS app, adding a number of features that will allow it to compete with the likes of Facebook's Instagram and Google's Snapseed.

The update, which is live in the App Store now, introduces a "completely new photo taking experience" with live filters and editing.

Live Filters let you see how your photo looks while you take it. Swiping through live filters, you can choose composition grids, focus lock and exposure points to better set up your shot. Even our preview tiles let you see what your shot looks like live.

All of our filters are also customizable after you’ve taken the photo. You don’t have to leave the camera and lose focus on your perfectly melting ice cream shot. In addition to our magic wand, we’re adding all the advanced tools so you can enhance, crop, sharpen, balance color, use Levels, add vignette and more – for free. You now have a complete photo studio in your hands.

Unlike Instagram, which features fixed filters, Flickr allows users to tweak individual aspects, such as the contrast or brightness, in order to get the image they desire. The update also removes the paywall for Flickr's professional editing tools, so photos can be enhanced, cropped and sharpened for free. The interface has also received a slight revamp, with new transitions present across the entire app.

In May, the web version of Flickr received a major revamp and users were given 1 TB of storage space as standard. The new Flickr app is free from the [Direct Link], but the Android version has yet to receive an update.

(Thanks, Arthur!)