Getty Images And iStock iOS Apps Get A Big Overhaul And The New Embed Function

Stock photography giant Getty Images is updating its iOS apps, including iStock, which gets its update today, and Getting Images proper, which is receiving its overhaul on July 17.

Both apps feature design changes that make the photography they show off much more the central focus. They include great-looking lightbox designs for browsing, including mosaic views on both the iPad and the iPhone, easy filters and full-screen and detail-heavy single image views.

The new look for both apps comes out of the recognition by Getty that mobile is an increasingly important source of inbound requests and queries for stock photo buyers. Even image sourcing, which is a task formerly best suited to the big screens of desktops, has become something that works well on mobile thanks especially to high-density displays.

Everyone, including Google, is realizing that these screens don’t just mean higher resolution for streaming video – they require an entirely new perspective on design.

Getty’s new look on mobile also reflects a need to keep pace with competitors hoping that an emphasis on good software design will elevate their own photography market products. 500px, for instance, has recently put a lot of effort into making its photo-sharing network a destination for businesses and professionals seeking commercial-use photography that isn’t just tired retread of photos downloaded and used by thousands of others before them.

Along with these updates, Getty is bringing its new Embed function, which it unveiled on the web back in March, to the Getty Images app. Embed lets users who are looking for stock imagery for non-commercial use to use a simple code to put the picture on their blog or site, where it resides in a wrapper rather than in a traditional IMG tag. Speaking of competitors, 500px also introduced a similar function earlier this year.

Getty’s updates here bring its stock photo resource in line with the best current tools on mobile for sourcing commercial imagery. They also present a very different corporate image from the association some have between the company and overexposed pictures of smiling people drawing on glass with black marker in white rooms.

With the advent of mobile and social photo sharing, it’s key that Getty stay ahead of the curve to give those looking for photos to use in their projects ample reason to stick with pro sources.