Flickr is a platform where you can share your images and videos.

Remember when you had to show your friends the photographs you took in person? Fortunately, times have changed, and now, you can easily flaunt your creativity in front of the entire world using image-sharing platforms. One such photo-sharing website is Flickr.

Here, we'll discuss what Flickr is, the features it offers, and what sets it apart from its counterparts.

What Is Flickr?

A visual of a Flickr account

Flickr is a popular online photo-sharing site for uploading your photographs and videos. It started its journey in 2007, and with no Instagram around, it was once the most popular site of its category.

Though Flickr isn't at the height of its popularity currently, the platform currently boasts over 60 million monthly active users across the globe.

The Best Features of Flickr

Now that you know what Flickr is, let's look at some of its notable features that you should try out:

1. Dedicated Profile

Flickr needs you to create a profile on the website to upload your own work. You can add your profile image and a bio to your Flickr profile. Upon profile creation, you'll get a dedicated profile along with a dashboard where you can view photos and videos.

From the dashboard, you can manage and track your media files. Here, you can also showcase up to 25 favorite photos. This section will also display your most popular images and testimonials from your fans.

2. Photostream

In the Photostream section, Flickr shows all your uploaded photos that are publicly viewable. This public portfolio segment is dedicated to your shared media files that people can view by visiting your profile. You can also view your other images with different viewing permissions, such as friends, family, friends and family.

3. Albums and Galleries

Albums and Galleries in Flickr

You can group your images and videos of similar subjects or categories by putting them in an album. Flickr will let you download, delete, or share an entire album in one go.

Galleries is another way of grouping images, but you can use this feature to gather photos that belong to others. A gallery can accommodate up to 50 photos or videos.

4. Organize

This feature lets you manage your photos by editing all the necessary settings. Here, you can change permission settings, add/edit the date, add people and tags to the image, edit geolocation settings, send photographs to a group, and add images to an album.

If you want, you can even select multiple photos at once and batch organize them in a short time.

Related: How to Hide or Fake Your Location in Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge

5. Sharing

When someone asks what is Flickr used for, photo-sharing is the first thing that comes to our minds. You can effortlessly share any media files uploaded in Flickr with people within or outside this platform.

One-click sharing button is available for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr. You can also get embedded code and BBCode for an image or send it via email with a message.

6. People

In this section, you can find the list of people you follow and photos they submitted on Flickr. You can utilize it to search for someone who already uses this platform. It also lets you import your address book from Facebook, Gmail, and Yahoo to find contacts who're already on Flickr.

From here, you can also send a personalized invitation through emails to your friends to join Flickr.

7. Faves

An image for Faves, a feature of Flickr

Simply put, Faves is the section where Flickr stores all your favorite or bookmarked photos. You can star any images you like on Flickr and return to this section when you want to revisit them.

8. Stats

This feature will provide you with viewer source, image popularity, view count, and other advanced stats through graphs and charts. It'll help you get a clear idea about your Flickr profile performance. However, only the Pro users can access this attribute.

9. Groups

You can also join Flickr Groups to expand your network of like-minded people and get more exposure to your photos and videos. To become an active member of a group, frequently comment on the photos others share and always reply to their comments of your posts.

Besides, you can mark other users' photos as favorites and follow other photographers to build a network outside the groups. It offers you an opportunity to get engaged in a discussion around a common theme.

10. Geotagging

Using the geotagging feature, you can add the location to your photos. It's even possible to add a location to a batch of images simultaneously. More importantly, Flickr gives you complete control over who sees the geolocation information in your pictures.

Related: How to Remove Location Data When Sharing Photos From Your iPhone

11. Google Chrome Extension

If you use Chrome for web browsing, install the Flickr Tab extension to see a new popular image on Flickr every time you open a new tab. It also lets you explore more information about the photo and check more works of the photographer.

What Is Flickr Pro?

You can use Flickr for free to store up to 1,000 photos or videos. This free plan also includes robust photo management and photo editing tools. If you want to get more out of it, you have the option to upgrade to a Flickr Pro account.

The paid plan will provide you with additional features like an ad-free experience across Flickr (for you and your profile visitors) and upload unlimited images in full resolution.

A visual of the Flickr pro feature

Pro users can also back up their entire photo collection from their computer, phone, external storage drive, Dropbox, Adobe Lightroom, and other platforms via Auto-Uploadr. Moreover, they'll have access to advanced stats like trending photos and highest-performing images.

By subscribing to the annual Pro plan, you can get additional discounts on Adobe, Blurb, SmugMug, PHLEARN, and Priime platforms, which is a fantastic deal for creators.

How Is Flickr Different From Other Photo Sharing Platforms?

Instead of being a social media like Instagram, Flickr is more of a photo-centric platform. Hence, it lets photo enthusiasts and professional photographers showcase their work.

While free users can upload up to 1,000 photos and images in one account, there are no daily, weekly, or monthly limitations for image upload in it, unlike 500px.

Also, the platform doesn't alter the image quality during upload and retains its original resolution. For this reason, photographers can use it instead of platforms like Imgur to build a professional portfolio.

Build Your Portfolio on Flickr

If you're more into showing off your photography talent than socializing with your friends, Flickr is a fantastic platform. You can use it to upload your images and videos in their original size without compromising the quality. You may also allow others to download them in different resolutions if you desire.

Besides Flickr, you may want to try other sites for sharing and hosting images as well. These sites will help you rope in more clients and grow your photography career in the long run.