Visual communications company Getty Images has announced the Australian launch of its first consumer app, Getty Images Stream.

Th app enables users to access, curate and share its content. Available for iPhone and iPad on iOS 8, Stream is a free app designed for people who are passionate about pictures and offers continuously updated, curated streams of the latest local and international news, sport and entertainment imagery.

With Stream, Getty Images makes its imagery easily and legally shareable and embeddable via mobile devices. The Stream app launch in Australia follows the highly successful debut earlier this year of Getty Images’ embed feature, which enables users to share one of the largest and most comprehensive image collections in the world, for non-commercial use on blogs and social media.

“Australians have a love affair with photography. We love sharing images and we love taking images. With the huge growth in local users for image-based sites and platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, imagery is now, more than ever, our most spoken language,” said Stuart Hannagan, vice president of editorial imagery, APAC, at Getty Images.

“With the launch of Stream, Australians will now be able to have stunning news, sport and entertainment photography delivered straight to their iPhone or iPad. Don’t miss a minute of the latest cricket photography or shots of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race this summer with Stream making it easier than ever to view – and share – the world through the lens of Getty Images photographers.”

Stream uses Getty Images’ API to aggregate content and includes these key features:

• Streaming: Easy-to-navigate curated photo streams across different categories – latest, news, sport, entertainment and archival.
• Search: Explore millions of stunning editorial images through customised streams.
• Slideshow: Play slideshows of any stream or search results on Apple devices using Apple AirPlay, including Apple TV.

• Embed and share:Share an image directly to Facebook and Twitter simply by tapping the ‘share’ icon. To embed in a blog, tap the ‘copy’ icon and paste the embed code into a blog or webpage.

Getty Images built Stream for Apple’s new operating systems, iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. It uses Apple’s new Swift language and CloudKit capabilities to light up iPhones, iPads, Macs and televisions using Apple TV with high-resolution media.