Written Android App Review
After years of dragging their feet, photo sharing giant (and Yahoo! affiliate) Flickr finally has its very own official Android app.
That may be music to the ears of Flickr’s 60 million members. But is it too little too late? Our Android app review of Flickr will help you decide.
Features
Flickr
Obviously the Flickr Android app allows you to upload photos directly from your Android to your Flickr account. It also allows you to share Flickr pics via email, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and the other usual suspects. No big surprise.
A built in set of instant photo filters is a nice surprise. Choose from ten tasteful filters that enhance color and shading. Unfortunately there are not any options to crop or rotate photos. The editing options could definitely be enhanced.
Pull photos from your gallery or use the Flickr Android app to capture photos in custom sizes (think of it like cropping for dummies).
In the app’s activity feed you can easily keep track of your photos’ lives on Flickr. If someone adds a pic as a favorite or drops you a comment it will appear here in a time stamped stream much like Facebook’s.
Pics from your contacts and your own personal profile, collections, etc. are also available in this app. A few missing features include video upload, groups and after post editing.
User Interface
I really dig the photo view interface. Tap on an image to open it full screen, then flick side to side to move through the collection.
Navigating between your activity stream, contacts feed and personal profile is also easy thanks to a simple bottom tab design.
Design wise the Flickr Android app definitely has it going on. Even the in-app camera makes browsing your gallery, changing settings and jumping back to feeds a breeze.
Functionality
Flickr
Early reports are full of user complaints about the Flickr Android app’s snail like pace. Turns out the more photos, friends and activity you have the slower this app will load on your Android.
Personally, I did not experience any significant lag time, other than while I was waiting for search results and launching the in-app camera. Every time I flicked my way through a Flickr album the app performed beautifully.
Like so many apps, Flickr’s performance may come down to your connection and processor speeds. Over 3G photo loads might take a moment. But on 4G or a fast Wi-Fi connection this app moves along just fine.
Value
If you are one of Flickr’s Android-centric users you deserve a gold star for exhibiting an enormous amount of patience. More power to you.
If you’re a former Flickr user who defected (like me) it may be time to give the old gal another look. The Flickr Android app is easy to navigate with a handful of solid socializing features.
It also happens to be free. It would have to be to compete with all the other photo sharing options available to us Android users. So go ahead, a second glance never hurts.
Flickr
Android Apps Review Details: Flickr Android app is free. This app requires Android 2.1 and up. You may download Flickr from the Android Market.
This Android app review, as well as the other Android app reviews for droid phones and droid tablets on this site, are brought to you by AndroidAppsReview.com.
