When it comes to smartphone photography, even the most casual observer will notice a recurring theme: software is really important. The established leader in this area is the Google Camera app designed for Pixel phones.
Thanks to the Android modding community, Google Camera is now much more widely available. Prepared to take advantage of every bit of your camera’s capacity, the application brings the most advanced image processing technologies to your phone.
See how to get Google Camera on your phone.
What is Google Camera?
Direct from Google’s cutting-edge research and development division, Google Camera is a camera app that saw the light for the first time in 2014 with the launch of Google’s first Pixel phone. Although they do not have the most advanced camera hardware you would see on other flagship smartphones, Pixel devices are known to produce some of the best mobile photos.
It demonstrates the need for software to take advantage of every bit of a phone’s camera. By replacing the application built into your camera, Google Camera allows you to access many advanced features, visibly updating the quality of your phone’s image output.
Also known as Google Camera Mod or GCam, the app will make your smartphone’s camera work like never before.
What makes GCam so good?
Are the features of Google Camera advanced enough to replace your standard camera application? Definitely! You will not only see an improvement in image quality, but will also expand the set of options for taking and manipulating images.
The following features make Google Camera so amazing:
- Slow motion: Record video at 120 or 240 frames per second (fps), depending on the capacity of your phone. An ideal solution to create videos showing the details of the movement, filling them with the potential for viralization.
- Moving photos: Combining the movement of a three-second video with the phone’s optical image stabilization (OIS) and gyroscope, you can create blur-free video snapshots.
- Lens out of focus: Designed primarily for portrait photos, this feature blurs the background, emphasizing and emphasizing the front and center of the subject.
- HDR +: By intelligently employing short exposure times when taking a sequence of photos, HDR + reduces blur, image noise and increases the dynamic range. Effectively, from a set of photos, the application obtains the sharpest image, improves it algorithmically by processing each pixel and chooses the color that corresponds to the average in the whole set of photos. Among many benefits, HDR + enhances photos to the maximum in low light.
- Smart Burst: With Google Camera installed, your phone will be able to capture about ten photos per second by holding down the shutter button. When you release the button, the application will automatically choose the best photo in the set. This is a great resource when you want to delete photos of people with their eyes closed!
- Video stabilization: Using OIS and digital video stabilization, the application processes video clips to remove artifacts from the shutter distortion and corrects the focus. As a result, you can create nice, uniform videos that won’t bother people when sharing them on social media.
- Panorama: Most cameras have a panorama feature, but GCam is better than most. In addition, the Google Camera is not limited by degrees or angles. With it, you can take panoramic photos vertically, horizontally and at a wide angle across the full 360 degrees.
Some phones already have some of these features, but Google Camera offers unparalleled results in almost every area. It updates even basic photos, thanks to its HDR and low light performance.
Comparison of Google camera with stock camera
With Google Camera features out of the way, let’s see how they translate in practice, compared to its built-in camera app.
You get better exposure, more details and sharper photos. The effort to replace your standard camera app with Google Camera is well worth it. Fortunately, this effort does not require much.
Installing the Google Camera
For a smooth transition from the standard camera app to Google Camera, what matters is your phone’s compatibility.
What are the prerequisites?
The list of port hubs from XDA Developers will continue to be updated, so all is not lost if you don’t see your Android phone on the list. However, to make sure your phone is a possible candidate for installing Google Camera, it needs to be compatible with the Camera2 API.
The Camera2 API gives developers access to your phone’s camera features to get every last drop of control over your lens, individual frame flash, shutter speed, auto focus, RAW capture, HDR +, OIS and camera sensor.
Although the Camera2 API started with Android 5.0 Lollipop, Android 7.1.1 and above are much more likely to be compatible. To make sure your phone has it, just install the free Camera2 API Probe app on the Google Play Store.
The application is as simple as possible. After opening it, the first screen you will see is your phone’s compatibility list for Camera2API:
The Hardware support level section is the most important part. It will include compatibility for the rear and front cameras. Here’s what the four levels mean:
- LEGACY: Support for Camera1 API only, which means that if this is the only green check mark, you will not be able to take advantage of Google Camera on your phone.
- LIMITED: Support for a narrow range of API Camera2 features.
- FULL: Support for all important features of the Camera2 API.
- LEVEL 3: Additional support for YUV reprocessing, RAW image capture and extra output stream options.
At higher levels, you are ready for the installation process if the Camera2 API is enabled.
If this is not the case, you will need to root your phone and edit the build.prop file with the BuildProp Editor. This is much more advanced, however, and is beyond the scope of this guide.
The installation process itself
With the compatibility issues resolved, the first step is to go to Google Camera Port Hub and check if the GCam port is available for your device. Among the dozens of supported models, all are organized in alphabetical order by the manufacturer, from Asus to Xiaomi.
To make searching easier, follow these steps:
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Touch the three-dot icon menu in the upper right corner of your browser.
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Select the Find on page option.
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Enter your Android phone model. As you type, available results are highlighted.
The alternative to the Google Camera Port hub above is this alternative GCam hub. With both hubs, you’ll see a list of APK files to download to your phone. When you tap the APK download file, you’ll see a warning screen and need to confirm.
Of course, we know what this file does, so we want to play It’s ok. Then go to Settings> Security and allow applications to be installed from Unknown sources.
Finally, select the APK file you downloaded with a good file manager and select the APK file to proceed with the installation.
You should now be set up and ready to start exploring the wonders of GCam.
Consider tapping the Google camera source
GCam is an easy way to get more out of your existing smartphone’s camera. If you are not satisfied with the photos you are receiving, it is worth investigating.
If your Android phone is not yet compatible, or is too old to be supported due to the API2 Camera requirement, you can consider switching to a Pixel the next time you update your phone. In this scenario, you would benefit from maximum hardware and software compatibility, with all the cutting edge features that the Internet giant is capable of offering.
In the meantime, there are many other great Android camera apps that you can try out.
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