Tumblr, the micro-blogging service that allows everyone to be a creative publisher, has updated its iOS app to become faster and more engaging. Tumblr says it’s “completely native.”
By “native”, the company means that the app feels faster and more integrated into your iOS experience. After a few minutes of playing with it, I can tell you that the company has backed up their claims in every sense of the word. Recently, the company built a stand-alone photo-sharing app which was lovelier than its own app, so I knew that something was up.
The mobile team at Tumblr has been hard at work, to say the least.
Here’s the update, as Tumblr describes it:
We’re so thrilled to tell you that our app is now completely native! Get ready for a faster, smoother, and more responsive Tumblr Dashboard.
- Completely redesigned Dashboard — bigger photos and faster post loading.
- Spiffy new notification previews — see exactly which posts were liked, reblogged, or replied to!
- New blog screens with blog portraits and descriptions.
- GIFs play automatically on your Dashboard! Slide your finger across to view frame by frame.
- New gestures — swipe right on any screen to go back to the previous view; long tap photos, links, tags, and post headers for more options.
When you log in, you’ll see the differences immediately. Everything is prettier, it’s easier to browser content and obviously easier to publish content of your own. This is a much needed update for an app that hasn’t always had the best experience for sharing.
In addition to new gestures, animated GIFs, a hallmark of the service, play right in your dashboard, or stream if you will. It feels a lot like Google+ for iOS in the sense that it’s really a joy to scroll for days and days. The key for the company is to take publishing to the next level by letting people engage with content in a way that other services, like WordPress or Blogger, don’t let you do. By re-blogging, liking and following, Tumblr is truly a hybrid of a few different experiences, including Twitter.
Basically, it’s “blogging” for the masses.
[Photo credit: Flickr]