Facebook iOS app updated, gets photo filters

Facebook iOS app
Now with photo filters

Facebook's iOS app has been updated to version 5.1, and while it doesn't say it on the iTunes page, photo filters is among the new features.

This comes just days after a report in The New York Times said Twitter was readying photo filters for its own mobile apps, to compete with the Facebook-owned Instagram.

The Facebook Camera app launched in May. It lets you add filters to your snaps, but now Facebook has embedded the function into its main app, effectively rendering its Camera one obsolete.

Filters like Contrast, Copper, Cream, and Black and White can be added by tapping the magic wand below the photo.

Beating Twitter to the punch

Some might say Facebook launched the feature ahead of Twitter to make the micro-blogging service seem behind the times. But if that's the case, why wouldn't it make more of a big deal of it? By, for example, including it in the list of new features on the iTunes page?

Facebook has also added the ability to upload multiple photos from within the main app. So you can share a folder of snaps at once, without having to upload each individually.

You can now buy Facebook Gifts through the iOS app, too. Previously, iOS users could only unwrap Gifts they'd received, while Android and web users could send them to others. So now iOS users have no excuse.

Via TechCrunch

Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about tech for 17 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Men's Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more (including What Hi-Fi?). His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can't justifying spending money on.