Today, Google updated the Google Camera app to version 7.5 for some people who are on Android 11 Beta. Within the update, we can see some hints that Google is getting new Camera features ready and preparing for their upcoming generation of Pixels phones.
For months now, we’ve been tracking the Pixel 4a as Google’s next Android hardware release. Earlier this month, our team uncovered direct mentions to Google also launching a “Pixel 5” and “Pixel 4a (5G)”, with no signs of a Pixel 5 XL.
Pixel 5 & Pixel 4a (5G)
This update also includes mentions of the three known Pixel phones for 2020 — Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a (5G), and Pixel 5 — and their respective codenames.
This tidbit also confirms that there will be no Pixel 5 XL this year.
Motion Blur
With the new Camera 7.5, Google introduced a mysterious new string into the app, one that simply and unhelpfully says “Lasagna.”
<string name=”lasagna”>Lasagna</string>
Digging deeper though, we find that “Lasagna” is just a placeholder name for an upcoming mode offering a “motion blur” effect. From what we can tell, this motion blur mode should appear alongside other Google Camera modes like Night Sight, Time Lapse, and Photo Sphere.
Motion blur looks to offer a DSLR-like quality to photos of moving targets, similar to how portrait mode simulates the bokeh effect. Given that the feature is still listed under a codename, we may still have some waiting to do before taking action shots on our Pixels.
Audio Zoom
Another feature that was there before the release of Pixel 4 is “audio zoom,” or essentially the ability to “focus” your microphone down to a specific direction when recording a zoomed-in video. With Camera 7.5, Google takes another step closer to launching an audio zoom, with new descriptions for how audio zoom works.
<string name=”pref_audio_zoom_title”>Audio zoom</string>
<string name=”pref_audio_zoom_summary”>Boost the sound where the user is zooming in on.</string>
Cstark27, a well-known member of the Google Camera app modding community, was able to enable the “Audio zoom” preference mentioned above, but it had no immediate effect on video recordings. It’s possible that the audio zoom requires hardware not available on the current generation of Pixel phones.
Flash Intensity
On Pixel phones today, your camera flash is either on or off, and nowhere in between. One more subtle upcoming feature we’ve found in Camera 7.5 is that Google may be making the camera flash adjustable. We found two new references in the app’s code to “flash_intensity.”
flash_intensity_for_photo_modesflash_intensity_for_photo_modes_enabled
Other Android phones over the years have offered adjustable camera flash brightness, but considering the Pixel series Night Sight expertise, it’s no surprise the feature hasn’t arrived sooner. So far though, these are the only two mentions, suggesting the work has only just begun and is far from ready to launch.
Video Sharing
Google Camera has this feature whenever you take a picture you’re offered easy access to share that photo to one of your favorite social media or messenger apps, from the preview in the bottom-right corner. As noted on Twitter by XDA’s Mishaal Rahman, Google Camera 7.5 includes work to make newly recorded videos just as easy to share.
Specifically, you’ll be able to share videos with the following apps:
- Discord
- Facebook Messenger
- Google Hangouts
- Google Messages
- GroupMe
- Helo
- imo
- KakaoTalk
- Kik
- LINE
- ShareChat
- Signal
- Skype
- Slack
- Snapchat
- Telegram
- Textra
- VSCO
- Verizon Messages
- Viber