Last week, we noted that mobile photo-sharing app PicPlz rolled out a bunch of improvements to their app in an effort to better compete with rival Instagram. Sadly, that new polish was only for their iPhone app at the time. But today brings good news for Android fans: the same features! And there’s a bonus too: PicPlz is now accepting applications for access to their API.

PicPlz has more about the new features for Android users here. Here’s the main gist of the update:

• Live thumbnail preview of your picture with different filters applied.
• Fixed rare crash on sign up
• Fixed issue with notifications not clearing from status bar
• Camera view no longer turns screen brightness to 100%
• Fixed issue with camera not properly detecting the flash state on start-up
• Other misc bug fixes

They also promise more speed improvements in the next iteration. The Android version is key for them because it is one way they definitely distinguish themselves from Instagram — which is still iPhone-only.

The API, meanwhile, is another way they can potentially distinguish themselves — at least for a bit. Those interested are asked to sign up for the PicPlz API beta here.

Instagram caused a bit of a stink when they pulled third-party access to their data a couple weeks ago. This wasn’t meant to be a hostile act, they simply want developers to wait to use their data until they have a proper API that can scale. ”We’re testing it internally and with selected partners at this time,” they tells us.

The race is on.

Crunchbase

• PICPLZ
• ANDROID

Product: picplz

Website: picplz.com

Company Mixed Media Labs

picplz is a location-centric photo streaming service developed by Mixed Media Labs. picplz works for both Android and iPhone phones. Once photos are uploaded users can apply great looking photo effects. The service is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Dropbox, Posterous & Foursquare.

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Product: Android

Website: code.google.com

Company Google

Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in Java that utilizes Google-developed software libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards...

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