The Good: Galleries is brilliant and long overdue. Combining the like and the favorite button is a great idea. Having them separate was bloated and clunky. The Bad: the Information in Focus View is a little intrusive and not viewable in landscape. So if I want to like a photo or check the details, I have to turn the phone. The white pop up details window not only clashes with the Focus view experience, it is considerable slower than the previous method of sliding up the details information. The pop up is also surprising slow to display the information,whereas the previous version was instant. The Ugly: The picture information is ‘sticking’ from one picture to the next when swiping through pictures in Focus View meaning the the wrong information is being displayed for the picture being viewed. Also, the my ‘likes’ are not being recognized. When i like a pic, the heart turns from clear to white, but the like count doesn’t change. The heart will either change back to clear after about 10 seconds, or remain until I swipe to the next picture and then back again. Upon returning to the pic that I ‘liked’ the heart is clear again. Looking forward to the fixes…

I am a 10 year+ user of 500px app and website. I liked it as a site for serious photographers, an alternative to places to view teenyboppers’ latest selfies and pictures of cats. Recently it updated its app and its website service. Both “improvements” were disastrous. First the app. Previously the app was simple, clean, and displayed one’s work in an attractive and intuitive manner. Now the app displays ones work in a wide, heavily cropped, landscape format, destroying the frame and composition of the original work. One has to question the sanity and competence of the individuals responsible for this change, as if photographers don’t care about framing and composition. Moreover, it has added new ‘functionality’ which pushes crap into your feed you have never liked and will never like, as well as work you have already liked. Duh. The new search function uses “AI” which in this case stands for ‘artificial insipidity’, delivering results that are downright bizarre, even if you name the photographer or subject matter precisely. Most of this applies to the web version too, though so far the severe cropping has not been implemented. Users should just skip this app and go straight to the web until 500px regains their sanity.

I want to add that I also think the new logo is poorly designed. The simplicity and instant recognizability of the previous logo was perfect. The new logo is too complex without contrast or distinction. And the whole attempt to transform "px" from pixels to "personal expression" comes off as a bad SNL skit idea.One other thought. 500px joining with this Chinese content provider is a bad idea. China has an abysmal track record for protecting intellectual rights and copyright protection. Essentially handing them the entire content of 500px on a platter seems that it will likely end very badly for 500px. I have no doubt that when images start being used without authorization, that 500px will be facing a very costly class-action lawsuit. I agree with several others on here that the UI has taken a step backward. But my biggest complaint is a technical one. The cache for this app keeps growing and growing. Two days ago it was at 600MB. Today it is now at 1GB. I've searched the app and all of the available settings, but am unable to find any way to purge the cache or to set a cache maximum. This is something 500px needs to seriously address.

It is sad when an app that you really like is updated and it seems like it has taken a big step backward in functionality, almost to the point of not really wanting to use it any more. I used to really like the two basic viewing modes: full screen, then almost full screen but with some basic information such as what the pulse rate was of the picture and an easy way to give it a thumbs up, etc. Now to find the pulse rate you must go out of full screen to this other mode and then select “Details”. I can’t describe the old modes fully because, well, they are gone. Sniff sniff. Also, if you accidentally push the button in the middle of the row of buttons at the bottom for adding a photo, there is no easy way to cancel out of it that I can find. I have had to kill the app to get out of it. And finally, there is some gesture that I am doing that has me giving a thumbs up to a photo and it can’t be undone later by just selecting the thumb icon. Sorry, not a good update in my opinion. I will give it 2 stars because it still has the same amazing pictures. Otherwise I would 1 star it just to send a “not cool” message.

In order to get into a creative mindset I find that looking at others good work stirs my creative process. 500px was great for this with the previous version of this app and with the new version takes both a step forward and a step back. Where they step back is the use of white backgrounds. I'll never understand why photography apps use white backgrounds. Neutral gray or black would make the photos look their best and since they are selling prints I'd think they'd want to make all these photos look as amazing as possible.But then there is the step forward... galleries. I can now create a gallery of any photos that inspire me to create. I can create multiple galleries that inspire in different ways using different styles. I control what goes in and why it goes where I want it. Even though these two things make a push I still give the app five stars because of the galleries. That alone puts this above the Flickr app and don't get me started on Instagram.

This app was badly in need of an update. I learned the ins and outs of the old version *eventually* but it was cumbersome and clunky. Yes, there are always going to be bugs to work out and reprogramming to merge old functions and features with new ones in any major update, but overall I am happy they saw the need to update the user interface in the app, even though it meant my photos suddenly received fewer likes and favorites ("votes" as members call it - no presidency for me!) because the feed where we can view all the photos that those who we follow have "voted" for is now gone. Somehow that feed acted a bit like the Tadaa reposting and helped my mediocre photos get a little pat on the head. I digress. Keep up the good work, and fellow members, keep up the great photography. That's what we're here for ultimately. Change is jarring, but we humans are adaptable. It's still better than what instagarbage has become.