Flickr has launched an official app for Android phones, one that rivals the popular Instagram social photo-sharing app that is exclusive to iOS. Flickr also announced oto Sessions, a feature that lets you watch photo slideshows with friends in real time, anywhere around the globe.
Flickr, owned by Yahoo, has missed the social photo-sharing revolution on the ione, where its plain app only allows you to view upload photos taken with your phone. Instagram on the other h, with its funky photo filters Facebook Twitter integration, has gained more than 10 million users in a year. Some would even say that Instagram made off-focus tinted photos popular again.
Instagram hasn’t treaded on ’s Android platform, which is where Flickr now hopes to stake its claim. The Flickr Android app, available now free from the Android et, has 10 photo filters via a built-in camera viewfinder interface. ke Instagram, it lets you see geotagged photos on a map comment share your photos on Facebook, Twitter Tumblr.
It’s unknown whether Flickr will port the new functionality to its iOS app. According to Flickr’s own stats, the ione 4 is the most popular camera used on the site, outclassing cameras from Nikon Canon. As for Android, the HTC Evo 4G is the only Android smartphone in Flickr’s camera use rankings, at number four, behind the ione 4, 3G 3GS in the cameraphone category.
mp in a photo session
Flickr also launched a cool feature called oto Session that allows users to see the same photos in real time, without being in the same room. The feature works on computers iOS devices by generating a unique URthat lasts 24 hours that you can share with up to 10 friends or family members.
Once they join the oto Session, the initiator can control the slideshow, so that the other users see all your interactions with the pictures in real time, from swiping between photos to zooming in or drawing. There’s also a chat box at the bottom, but unfortunately no voice chat integration.
Here’s Flickr’s video of how oto Sessions work:
