Flickr looks like it’s about to get another redesign less than a year after it rolled out its last one.
While the reported revamp is unlikely to be in the form of a major overhaul, there are nevertheless likely to be some noticeable differences that should please the Flickr community.
According to a Re/code report Sunday that spoke to “numerous sources inside Yahoo,” the company is gearing up to launched a cross-platform refresh “within the next few weeks.”
The update reportedly makes the service a lot slicker than before, emphasizes sharing options, and sees the removal of the purple Yahoo toolbar that suddenly appeared in July last year, annoying many Flickr users in the process.
Re/code also says the new design brings the look of its Web and mobile offerings closer together, and features “a more seamless photo stream with no white space.”
It sounds like the designers have worked to simplify the look as much as possible, removing words and buttons in a bid to further highlight images, leaving only “an indication of who your followers are and a few more pieces of info in a floating text.”
Sources told Re/code that the update, for the app at least, is an attempt by the company to attract more users and compete better with other photo-sharing offerings like Facebook-owned Instagram.
Improvements
Although Yahoo acquired Flickr in 2005, for years it pretty much neglected the site, a situation which saw its design grow stale and outdated. The Web version was functional but unattractive, while the mobile offerings were slow and rarely received updates.
However, when Marissa Mayer took the reins at Yahoo just over 18 months ago, all that changed. She clearly saw potential in the photo site and invested time and money in a complete overhaul.
In December 2012, the Web company pushed out an all-new Flickr app for iOS that was actually a pleasure to use, and five months later made a splash with a revamped website with a striking photo-centric interface understandably described by many as Pinterest-esque. The company threw in a whopping 1TB of free storage space, and there was even an overhauled Flickr app for Android users, too.
Mayer said a long time ago that she wanted to “make Flickr awesome again.” Her team has certainly taken some big steps toward that goal, so let’s hope the reported update continues to take the service in the right direction.
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