Android 10 last week already included a new version of Google Camera that elevated Night Sight into the main interface. The Pixel 4 will introduce a more significant redesign that’s likely also coming to older Pixel phones.
The primary change in Google Camera 7.0 is a more minimal interface that emphasizes the live viewfinder preview. Switching modes is now at the very bottom of the screen, while the shutter button just floats without a black background. The top bar for flash and timer has been replaced by a panel that can be swiped open. Zoom controls at the bottom of the screen have been improved by now noting the increment.
Time-lapse provides suggestions on what each tick is useful for in the real world. All around, there are a number of improvements geared toward providing a simple and more straightforward picture-taking experience.
After installing this version, you’ll encounter a “Camera dofgood is confidential” warning. The Google Camera icon on your home screen features a dog paw to denote the Googler-only nature of this release.
More About Features
According to a reliable source, ‘Motion Mode,’ which allows users to take high-quality action shots, will be one of the Google Pixel 4’s headline camera features. The new smartphone from Google will also tout improvements to the renowned Night Sight mode.
First up is so-called Motion Mode, yet another feature bringing the Pixel lineup closer in functionality too much more expensive standalone cameras. This camera feature allows you to take sports and action shots — with moving subjects in the foreground and blurry backgrounds.
Second, Google has improved its famed Night Sight feature with Google Pixel 4. Largely considered one of the best smartphone camera “night modes,” Night Sight will be getting some speed-related and other general improvements to capture better shots at night.
Google will be bragging about Pixel 4’s ability to take photos of the starry sky, a practice known as astrophotography. It’s unclear how much better Pixel 4’s Night Sight will be, but capturing great shots of astronomical objects will apparently be part of the pitch.
Meanwhile, a member of our community recently spotted some new code in the Google Camera 6.3 APK, which contains references to three new camera improvements due out later this year.
All three features are marked in code as “experimental2019,” which further indicates that these new features will be exclusive to the Pixel 4 before potentially being ported over to existing Pixel phones sometime in the future.
The first feature is called Audio Zoom, which appears to be very similar to the Zoom-in Mic feature Samsung recently added to the Galaxy Note 10. By adjusting audio levels based on where the camera is pointing and how much you’re zooming in, the new camera feature would presumably make it easier to highlight sounds from a particular subject, while also reducing distracting sounds coming from the surrounding environment.
Next comes something called Live HDR, which is expected to use machine learning to automatically retouch photos in order to enhance things like contrast, color saturation and more in real-time. XDA Developers speculate that Live HDR is likely based on the HDRnet algorithm, which was developed jointly by researchers from Google and MIT and was demoed more than two years ago back in the summer of 2017.
The last new feature spotted in the Google Camera 6.3 APK is an algorithm that is meant to cut down on distortion from the Pixel 4’s selfie cam by better correcting for the front-facing camera’s wide field-of-view. If launched, this feature should help prevent things like people’s faces from appearing fat or stretched out, and with the Pixel 4 going back to having a single selfie cam instead of the dual cams used on the Pixel 3, should help prevent the perception that the Pixel 4’s selfie game has regressed from last year.
And as a seeming confirmation of the Night Sight improvements mentioned by 9to5Google, there is code in the Google Camera 6.3 APK that includes references to a Zero Shutter Lag option for Night Sight that could speed up the process of taking low-light shots.
