What is Flickr? Everything You Need to Know about Flickr

Shanoon Cox

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Flickr is the software media platform that is used for sharing and managing online photos around the globe. This application was designed in 2004 by Ludicorp and since then it is used not only by professional photographers but also amateur photographers. They can share their high-resolution images and Flickr photos through this application. The platform has several features, one can simply create a free account on this media platform and share its photos via its account on Flickr. This platform is used by several professional bloggers and researchers to host their images that are embedded in social media and online blogs.

What is Flickr used for and why use Flickr?

Being a media platform, Flickr is used for sharing photos and other digital media for instance videos, etc. It is not only used for uploading these media files but also for organizing them in the Flickr account. As mentioned above, the Flickr photo-sharing app is not only for professionals but also for beginners as well. Users having minimal interest in taking images and doing photography can go through the digital galleries and check out the latest and trending photography as per their topic of interest.

The most important question is why one should use Flickr when there exist several other photo-sharing applications in the market. The answer to this question is that the Flickr photo-sharing account has powerful and advanced features. It provides active engagement of the community and helps to boost the reach of the people through their photos and videos and provides assistance in exploring other trending photos.

Flickr Features

Similar to other digital media sharing applications, Flickr uses its lexicon that helps the users of Flickr to explore and navigate to the desired websites with ease. This section of the article mentions some of the best features that one can gain by creating an account on Flickr.

Profile

Like several other applications, the user will have to create its profile/account on Flickr to share photos and videos. The user will be directed to the dashboard after every login, dashboard is the place where the user itself and other visitors can view photos and images. The account holder can keep the track of and manage its media from the dashboard.

Galleries

Flickr photo gallery feature not only creates user’s own “photo album” but also enables the user to share other’s media to its gallery as well. That makes the huge difference of why one should use Flickr instead of other image-sharing applications/platforms.

Photo-stream

The Photo-stream feature allows the user to set its photo album to private or public mode. If the user sets it to the public, then everyone who visits the profile would be able to see the photos. While in private mode, only the account holder itself would be able to see its content.

Albums

Flickr provides its users with the feature of creating “Albums” for each of the events separately. It makes it convenient for visitors to search their desired albums just by clicking on the album. For instance, if the visitor wants to see the images from Christmas 2020, he will directly click on the album named “Christmas 2020”. This organization helps the users themselves as well.

How to use Flickr?

In this section, I will tell you how to create and set up your Flickr account from signing up to sharing photos and videos over the platform.

1. At first, the user will create its account on Flickr for which he/she will have to visit the Flickr site and choose the “Sign up” tab that can be seen at the top right corner of the page.

2. In the second step, the user will have to provide its details, and after creating the account a verification email will be sent to the provided email address.

3. After verification, the user will be asked to check its details and change “Flickr screen name”. The account will be set up after this step.

4. Now, the user will have to upload photos and images or videos on its profile. For this, the user will be required to click on the cloud button at the top right corner of the page as shown in the image below.

5. It is now up to the user whether he wants to drag the photos or drop the media from the drive, otherwise, he will have the option to “Choose the photos to upload” from the desktop/ PC.

6. After uploading the photos, the following options will appear on the screen:

• Tags: Helps the viewer and user to immediately search the images and photos.
• People: It is just like the Facebook tags, where people are tagged.
• Albums: It helps in grouping the photos from the same event in one album.
• Groups: This feature is used when a user wants to share its photos to some specific groups rather than to be shown it to everyone publically.

7.The final step would be to share these photos to several other platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, etc. After completing all the above steps, the user will be provided with the share button and a link to help the user to share and spread its images and show his photography skills.

How Flickr is different from other photo sites?

This section is about how Flickr is different or better than other photo-sharing sites.

• 500px: Just like Flickr, this platform is also used for sharing images and videos but it restricts its users to upload only 7 images in one week. Which makes it a boring and lengthy process to get a high reach and rank.
• Imgur: Even though Imgur provides no limits for uploading the images per week or per hour basis, but it is not recommended to build for a professional portfolio. It is not considered good to showcase professional work.
• DevianArt: This platform is equally better as Flickr as it provides its user to create free accounts. The platform has the feature of providing community feedback and robust networking tools to its users.
• Google Photos: This app has generated more traffic on its platform being a valid alternative to Flickr. But its weak point is that it only provides a restricted or limited number of free uploads to its users.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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