Flickr 5.0
Flickr recently updated their iOS/iPadOS app to version 5 (App Store link) and, while it’s not radically new, for a service whose changes have been incremental over recent years it contains a lot of differences. However I’ve yet to find any official changelog or update information.
[…]
When displaying multiple grouped photos from a person you’re following, it is no longer possible to view all the subsequent ones, other than the three or four initially displayed.
In the list of your Followers’ photos, their name now appears under their photos, so you must scroll down beyond the photos to see who took them.
[…]
When zooming into a photo the app no longer loads a higher resolution version, so now the zoomed-in version will be very pixellated.
He has a long list of missing features that may or may not be coming back. And there’s what seems like a major change: tags can no longer use capital letters.
The main changes I noticed were:
In the Home/Discover view, when there’s a large group of new photos, you can only go into the group and view them individually, swiping to see each one. There’s no longer a way to see the whole group at once and scroll through it. (And tapping on the group icon or number of photos doesn’t do anything.)
Double-tapping to favorite doesn’t work in some situations.
The interface is more busy, showing more interaction chrome like other social media sites, rather than focusing on the photos.
Swiping/navigation seems more clear than before, though without the old app side-by-side I can’t be exactly sure what’s changed.
Update (2026-07-16): Wesley Moore:
The Android version has been updated too:
“Flickr is back and better than ever — rebuilt from the ground up with a fresh new look and feel.”
I would guess it’s been built with cross-platform technology as it looks the same and came out the same time as iOS. The performance is terrible on Android. Scrolling my Photostream is juddery on my Pixel 9a (120 Hz display). It’s worse on my Android tablet.
Scrolling between photos swipes the whole UI (not just the photo), there’s also a flash of white loading the new photo. Needs some serious iteration.
See also: Reddit.
Update (2026-07-27): A. Lee Bennett Jr.:
Hooray! #Flickr restored a thumbnail view of all items from a specific post.
It turns out that Flickr 5.0.3 reverts back to the 4.x codebase.
We know the new app hasn’t met the bar you expect from Flickr. Since launch, we’ve heard your feedback about bugs, missing features, and rough edges, and we want to acknowledge that directly. Here is where we currently stand:
iOS: We’re in the process of rolling back the iOS app to the previous version while we address these issues. You should see this reflected in the App Store shortly.
Android: The Android app will remain on the updated version. Due to technical limitations and the risks involved in reverting, a rollback isn’t possible on this platform. Instead, expect frequent updates as we fix bugs and restore preexisting features.
Across both platforms, this app refresh represents a significant, long-term investment in the Flickr app. The app was long overdue for an update and getting it right matters to us. Thank you for your patience, and for continuing to share what’s missing and not working. It’s shaping exactly what we address next.
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One of the things that broke entirely with v5.0.0 and isn't fixed in v5.0.1: Uploading from iOS. As in entirely broken. As in not possible to upload photos.
First, Flickr v5 is no longer a sharing target, so selecting the developed photos in Photos on iOS that I want to share, and sharing them to Flickr, doesn't any longer work.
Second, while Flickr v5 app itself can instantiate the picker interface in iOS (which lacks Photos album groupings, etc. so it's so much more cumbersome that it makes us cry), for selecting photos and allowing Flickr v5 to have access, it then DOESN'T UPLOAD THE PHOTOS.
Flickr support got right back to me when I reported the bugs and asked how the _hell_ they didn't test uploading before releasing the new version. They gave me a runaround at first. But eventually admitted there's a problem.
The only thing they could suggest as a workaround was giving Flickr v5 blanket access to all photos, screenshots, etc. on my phone. Um, fsck no, dudes. Flickr gets access to the items I want to have uploaded only. Sheesh.
Rhetorical question: Why am I paying Pro for this, especially on top of their other bugs?
(Including notably one that they're trying to distract from where they demand visitors disable anti-tracker protection (mis-calling that protection "ad blocker") so they can abuse those visitors even though Flickr's Pro terms are NO ADS ON PRO SITES.)
Rhetorical answer: I'm stupid. But I'm probably about to get smarter. Flickr and Smugmug are too increasingly enshittified dipshits.
Thanks for the link Michael. In the comments on my post someone just posted a link to this Flickr Help article that lists some of the features still on the roadmap https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/51338417883156-Flickr-App-Refresh-2026
Why there's none of this info (or an indication of the article's existence) in the app release notes, or anything posted on the Flickr blog, remains a mystery.
@Phil Thanks for the link. I was looking for something like that for a long time when writing this post but couldn’t find anything.
@Michael Same here. I see the article was last updated at "2026-07-15T18:04:26Z" but there's no published time.
Incidentally, I'm not active in Flickr groups, but one that I'm a member of, the admin has given up and is looking for new moderators: "I have decided to leave Flickr after the absolutely idiotic introduction of some less than even half-baked Android app **removing any possibility of group management**. Curating popular groups was hard enough, without Flickr itself knee-capping you." (https://www.flickr.com/groups/agriculture/ ) So I guess Android users are having similar issues.
I'm willing to cut Flickr a little bit of slack with what seems to be a major rewrite of its apps, as long as (1) web functionality remains intact and (2) they communicate their roadmap clearly.
I've been a paid premium member for years, so I appreciate the ability to store and tag libraries of photos at high resolution at a reasonable price. I hope that remains.
