No, you read that headline right. It turns out that the massive overhaul of Flickr’s mobile apps and desktop site that we witnessed last year was not the last one we’re going to see for a while. Yahoo!’s photo sharing service is changing it up yet again, according to new reports.
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Recode’s Kara Swisher caught a glimpse of the revamped Flickr, which is apparently all about simplicity, with the Yahoo! toolbar culled in exchange for simpler sharing options, floating words and an absence of unnecessary text and buttons.
While there is no clue yet about a launch date, the new look Flickr would be the second redesign for the service under the leadership of CEO Marissa Mayer, who has also overseen the redesign of Yahoo! Mail and its now-stunning weather apps. The last redesign saw Flickr release apps for Android and iOS which made it easy to quickly upload, filter and share images — a play that Flickr hoped would inspire Instagram fans to switch. To appeal to the serious photographers, Flickr’s redesign was also coupled with an offer of 1 terrabyte of free storage.
However, it seems Yahoo! isn’t seeing the type of traction it was hoping for with the popular image service — hence the need for another redesign. As Recode notes, while the app initially spiked to a place in the top ten charts in the App Store’s photo and video category, it has since fallen in popularity to the mid-40s in the niche category and more than position 300 overall, according to App Annie.
Of course, Flickr is now competing with mega photo apps like Instagram, which is still comfortably dominating the app stores. But the last redesign did see it climb the ranks quite significantly — something Yahoo! is probably hoping will happen again with the new look.
