Instagram introduces a new search and explore section

Instagram’s explore section isn’t exactly the most vital part of the photo-sharing app. Instagram hopes the latest update for Android iOS might change that perception. Version 7.0 of the app introduces a new explore and search section that brings rather similar features to Twitter. You get trending tags to show the most popular images up top. You also get trending place as well as a way to search for places in addition to being able to search for people and tags. You can look view all these categories at once through the “top results” shown across the service. It’ll now be easier than before to see event-related photos.

If you want to view amazing, curated images (which is a concept you’ve probably seen on VSCO), Instagram is also introducing curated collections. It’ll feature things like “interesting accounts and places, from musicians and extreme athletes to stunning architecture and gorgeous beaches.” You’ll be able to see banners for these collections at the top of the explore section. The update is rolling out first in the US. According to Instagram, “We’ll work to bring it to the rest of the world after we fine tune the experience and set it up to work well in other countries.” You just need to keep an eye out for this and it should make it to your device soon.

Source: Instagram | Via: The Verge

Instagram hopes to keep you in the loop with Highlights email

Instagram is hoping to keep its 300 million users active the old-fashioned way: sending email highlights of some of the best photos from your feed. How they select which photos to show we’re not quite sure. But this is an attempt to get more eyeballs onto their platform. And even see more ads, perhaps. It might serve you a purpose though if you just want to see a few great photos without having to wade through your feed.

Source: Engadget

Flickr's iOS app now more like Camera Roll, can auto-upload all your photos

Flickr is continously innovating its apps to regain part of the photo storage and sharing mojo it once had. The new version of the Flickr iOS app now behaves more like Apple's Camera Roll which makes it more familiar to users. Photos can now be auto-uploaded to Flickr, making it easier than ever before to backup and share. 

Flickr also features various photo filters and the ability to share directly to Instagram. Flickr is offering 1TB of free storage, and a typical iPhone photo coming in at around 2.5Mb, that gives you capacity in the order of half a million photos. Hit jump for the full changelog of Flicker 4.0 for iOS.

You can see the full changelog below.

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Instagram introduces emoji hashtags

It has come to the point where we can’t even communicate with words anymore. Instagram is now letting you use emojis for your hashtags. And you can search for these through the Explore tab. According to BuzzFeed, the most popular ones are the kissy face one, the one with hearts in their eyes, and the one crying because of laughing too much.

The latest update for their Android and iOS apps also introduces three new filters called Reyes, Lark, and Juno.

Source: BuzzFeed | Download: Apple App Store (free) + Google Play Store (free)