Ready, Set Action! BLINK goes to 2.0 with new features on Windows Phone 8

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

BLINK is a fun little camera app that came out of a summer project at Microsoft Research. It was demonstrated during the lead up to the release of Windows Phone 8 and was eventually released to the Store, receiving numerous updates over the past few months to improve things.

Today, version 2.0 has landed bringing with it a bunch of new features and new functionality. In short, it has basically become a ‘cinemagraph’ app now in addition to being able to grab the “perfect shot” as before.

Head past the break for the full change log and our quick video hands on for a tour of the new features!

Changelog

  • Camera settings - change camera settings such as scene mode, exposure, white balance and ISO in capture mode
  • Animation - Quickly set the motion range for animation in addition to selecting the best shot after capture
  • Sharing - Share the animations to BLINK.so.cl, Facebook, or Twitter
  • In-app viewing - View the animations in the in-app history, wait for a moment and they start animating!
  • Web gallery - From the in-app history, view your shared BLINKs in the web gallery
  • Save another - Your BLINKs are always saved within the app. Come back and save another shot to camera roll or change the animation range via "edit" in the in-app history

Dare we say, it looks like Microsoft took a page from Nokia’s book with their Cinemagraph app (though Nokia’s is still more advanced with its selective animations). Blink 2.0 builds off of the previous version nicely by giving users more control over the camera’s settings, which should make photo buffs happy.

With the animated BLINKs on board, one needs a way to share them with others (much like Nokia’s Cinemagraph issue), and so Microsoft has created a BLINK.so.cl server to upload the creations and to enable sharing with others. Unfortunately, things are still being “turned on” as our link brings us to a non-working “Private Beta” page, but that’s all backend stuff that can be sorted.

Anyway, head to the Store and pick up BLINK 2.0 for Windows Phone 8 here. Let us know in comments what you think!

QR: Blink

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

33 Comments
  • I have so many camera lenses and love them all...but barely use them, lol! Anyone else do the same?
  • I use all my lenses. I don't like having all these camera apps pinned to my start screen so when I need them I just use the lenses
  • I use Panorama and Bing Vision (although I launch it through Search button) out of quite a few lenses installed. And yeah, occasionally, Photosynth and Blink.
  • Same, ton in there, I use blink and synth. All others are cool, just not practical for fast action. Blink makes up for it with the best shot feature. Love Blink! Edit: I use Bing vision as well, through the Bing app.
  • Sweet! Nice Update!
  • Hey. Daniel. Did you come to know this yourself or someone tipped you? Just asking! ;-). Coz normally you give thanks to the tipster in the end.
  • Yeah, Microsoft told me last night. They win.
  • I've always liked this app. It just got even better!
  • Oh, your cat is sooooo cute!! :)
    I hope Microsoft will expand the social share options in the next major update, adding Blink Social directly in the native share option... Can I dream a little??  
  • Is it just me or is microsoft getting more nimble?  Things are a-movin.
  • Storage check updated also, but it still doesn't work on my 822. Will it ever?
  • Your 822 needs a firmware update, not the other way around. So Storage Check could have 9,000 updates and it will never work unless Verizon/Nokia put out new firmware.
  • Ok thanks Daniel. Guess I'll uninstall it then.
  • OVER 9000!!!
  • Great, I have been wanting to share some of my blinks. But I uploaded to Blink.So.Cl and I share it, but it doesnt actually work, the site just says coming soon.
  • Great I love
  • Great app. But when are we going to get an premier video editing app.
  • Big update
  • lens are cool but pretty confusing!, everytime i toggle to choose one I stop for a moment to remember who does what!,
    I wish if microsoft/nokia integrated all these features in the camera options itself, rather than having separate apps aka lens...
     
  • This app should be built into the camera app. The features should be standard!
  • CAMERA360 FTW!
  • Why can't either the Nokia Cinemagraph or Blink apps create real GIFs!? GIF format is much more upbiquitous and universally compatible than these stupid proprietary file formats or whatever they are.
  • Has anyone here tried Microsofts So.cl site?
  • I jumped on it last night after reading the WP article saying it was updated. It looks neat, and BLINK integrates with it. I just can't quite figure out the site yet. It's kind of like Pinterest/Google+, but more "animated" thanks to things like BLINK. You have to have a link, pic, gif, etc in order to post (so it seems anyway), but that will hopefully keep it clear of all the "woe is me" and "vague-booking" posts you'll find elsewhere.
  • Hey I dont have the Scene mode? Why is that Verizon 8x
  • Sweet! Not available for WP7.8.
  • BLINK cliplets has ben released for WIN8/RT which is more feature rich than this update, why couldn't they have included those features in BLINK.
  • Can i set a default camera lens when i open the Camera App?
  • New they are a step close to create a Imovie for WP with this film strip :)
  • Animation is a good idea. So.cl ? Does anyone even use that? Overall liking the changes in the app
  • i wanna give some feedback to the developer... anyone,, plz give me his email add.. 
     
  • I downloaded the update and now I CAN'T open the pictures I prevously took with the past Blink version!!!!!
    NEED to go back to the last Blink version, or any ideas???
  • My shot does not get saved in the camera roll after this update !! .. Can any one help me ??