Eight months after being acquired by SmugMug, Flickr has announced the latest line of updates to its Free and Pro accounts.
“Over the summer, we hit the ground running, learning from a lot of Flickr members,” says Co-Founder, CEO, and Chief Geek at SmugMug, Don MacAskill. “We listened carefully, then got building. That’s what we do.”
In line with the tweet below, which MacAskill posted as a feature roadmap, Flickr is working on moving away from the Yahoo login that was once required for all users. Starting in January 2019, you can use any email and accompanying password too login to Flickr.
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The Flickr team has also been working to minimize the spam problem on Flickr. Already, spam accounts and comments have been reduced, but MacAskill says the difference will be even more noticeable going forward. MacAskill says “W@e’re not done yet, we still have lots of work to do, but I hope you love the improvements we’ve already made, and I can’t wait for you to see what’s next.”
Flickr Pro users in particular will notice a number of new features and changes. Most notably, Flickr Pro now includes unlimited storage for photos and videos at full resolution, no ads, improved stats, longer video playback, and a new 5K photo display mode. Flickr also says customer support has received a revamp while the partner discounts have been sweetened even more with savings on Adobe Creative Cloud, Peak Design camera gear, and more.
Flickr Pro is available for $ 49.99 per year. If you upgrade to Flickr Pro before November 30, 2018, a 30 percent discount will be applied.
Moving onto the free accounts, Flickr explains that the terabyte storage option, once offered by Flickr when it was owned by Yahoo, is going away. “Unfortunately, “free” services are seldom actually free for users,” reads the press release. “Users pay with their data or with their time. We would rather the arrangement be transparent.”
Instead, free Flickr accounts will be limited to 1,000 images, regardless of resolution. Free accounts with more than 1,000 photos will have until January 9, 2019 to upgrade to Flickr Pro or download photos over the 1,000 image limited. After January 8, 2019, free accounts with more than 1,000 will be unable to upload any more photos.
Aside from the change in storage, free Flickr accounts will have the same functionality as before.
Flickr says these changes are “just the beginning” in an ongoing effort to improve the Flickr service. MacAskill ends the press release saying “From the start, Flickr has been an act of co-creation, and without you, our community, we’d be just an empty picture frame – no more than a template and a web address. We need the community’s help to make Flickr a sustainable, thriving community again.”
Flickr Announces New Photographer-Centric Improvements to Flickr Pro, Free Plans
Enhancements Mark New Step Forward for Flickr, the World’s Largest Photographer-Focused Community
SAN FRANCISCO–Today Flickr, the world’s largest photographer-focused community, announced several updates to both its Free and Pro accounts, marking a new step forward for Flickr and the future of photography.
In April, SmugMug announced its acquisition of Flickr and made a commitment to revitalize the global photographer community. This sparked a months-long effort to listen to its members and understand what Flickr needed to thrive and evolve. One of the most requested changes was a simpler login, and we are excited to share that beginning in January 2019, there will be no need for a Yahoo! account to access Flickr.
Flickr Pro, better than ever
Flickr Pro users will now enjoy unlimited storage of photos and videos, ad-free browsing, advanced stats and a global community of more than 100 million photographers, for less than half the cost of Apple, Google or Amazon storage options.
In addition to unlimited storage, Flickr Pro also now includes:
• Ad-free browsing, letting both photographers and their visitors focus on what matters. •
• Advanced stats on what photos are trending and which have performed best over the life of a user’s Flickr Pro account. The Flickr mobile app will now give Pros all the stats they know and love in-app.
• Premier product support, Flickr Pros now receive priority assistance from our new world-class support team. New 5K photo size optimizing images for any screen from smartphone to jumbotron.
• Increased video playback, increasing the time video playback from three minutes to ten minutes (coming early 2019).
• More partner discounts including Adobe Creative Cloud, custom portfolio sites on SmugMug, gear from Peak Design and many more.
Flickr Pro is available for $ 49.99 per year. That’s hands down the best deal in photography, and Flickr users that upgrade to Pro before November 30 will also get 30 percent off the first year.
Changes to Flickr Free Accounts
Flickr has long offered a free plan to photographers, and we remain committed to a vibrant free offering. Free accounts will now be for a member’s 1,000 best photos or videos, regardless of size.
This means, we are no longer offering a free terabyte of storage. Unfortunately, “free” services are seldom actually free for users. Users pay with their data or with their time. We would rather the arrangement be transparent.
Free members will still be able to participate fully in our community. Free members with more than 1,000 photos uploaded to Flickr will have until Tuesday, January 8, 2019, to upgrade to Pro or download photos over the 1,000 limit. After January 8, members over the limit will no longer be able to upload new photos to Flickr.
Just the beginning
These updates are the first of several expected in the coming months and part of the efforts by Flickr CEO and chief geek Don MacAskill to ensure the company provides a high quality experience and support its vibrant community:
“From the start, Flickr has been an act of co-creation, and without you, our community, we’d be just an empty picture frame – no more than a template and a web address. We need the community’s help to make Flickr a sustainable, thriving community again. We are committed to building the future we all want for Flickr – one where the site can keep evolving in all the areas that have made it the incredible, diverse, and beautiful place it has always been. We’re excited to define the future of photography together.”
To learn more, please visit: https://www.flickr.com/lookingahead/?utm_campaign=flickr-lookingahead&utm_medium=PR
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Instagram’s new AI-powered comment filter tackles trolls and spam
Instagram is getting serious about keeping the trolls away from your photos. Earlier today, the company announced that it will be rolling out an enhanced comment filter that uses artificial intelligence to squash rude, spammy, and otherwise inappropriate comments.
The news, along with an in-depth breakdown of how the technology was designed and works, was initially announced on Wired, but you can get the important bits from Instagram’s own blog post.
The tool acts by automatically and intelligently detecting and removing comments it believes are either inappropriate or spam, and hiding them from everyone except the poster him or herself. They have no idea their comment is invisible, but nobody else can see it.
The same goes for the spam filter, which can detect ‘obvious spam in comments’ in a total of 9 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese.
If for some reason you don’t want these comments filtered, the intelligent filter can be turned off by clicking on the ‘…’ menu on your profile page and flipping the ‘Hide Offensive Comments’ slider off.
Both tools are powered by machine learning, meaning that, over time, they’ll get better at detecting inappropriate comments and leaving inappropriate seeming (but actually okay) comments alone.
“Our team has been training our systems for some time to recognize certain types of offensive and spammy comments so you never have to see them,” reads the IG announcement. “We believe that using machine learning to build tools to safeguard self-expression is an important step in fostering more inclusive, kinder communities.”
As the algorithms improve, Instagram is promising to make both filters available in more languages. For now, offensive comments will only be filtered in English, but expect ongoing updates.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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