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Google Pixel Camera Gets New Features
By: Forbes | March 17, 2018

The latest update to Google’s camera app, the software powering the phenomenal Pixel and Pixel 2 cameras, has just received an update containing new features. Most are cosmetic or interface enhancements, but one is entirely new.

A new-look settings page has been made more user-friendly by the addition of graphical icons alongside the existing textual descriptions for each option. This update brings the settings interface more into line with the general Android settings page which features similar icons.

Newly added to the settings menu is a ‘grid type’ setting, which enables the display of a selection of compositional guides to be overlayed on the screen.


If you make frequent use of the grid, and frequently change its settings, then you may find this change somewhat annoying as it has now been removed from its more convenient location at the top of the main viewfinder screen. Google has presumably decided, that it’s not a popular enough feature to deserve such a prominent position.

Double-tapping the screen functions as a quick way to zoom in on the action when taking a photo. Now you can change the double-tap action into a quick camera switch instead, providing a quick way to flip between normal and selfie camera modes.

Finally, the entirely new feature is the “Show dirty lens warning” option. Turning this on allows the camera app to warn you when it thinks your camera lens is dirty so you can clean it before ruining a precious memory with greasy, smudged lens.

Provided the dirty detection turns out to be accurate, I envisage leaving this on all the time with the ‘off’ setting simply to preserve the sanity of those with permanently scratched lenses or other blemishes which can’t easily be removed. Alternatively, disabling the feature may be a way to preserve battery life.

These small, but mostly useful, changes show the Google cares about the minor details in its apps, but the bigger changes such as multi-camera support and HEIF output won’t arrive until Android P.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulmonckton/2018/03/17/google-pixel-camera-gets-new-features/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix&yptr=yahoo#44cca86e40e3

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