Google Camera 7.0 is fleeing Google Pixel 4

Unless you've turned off "Google Pixel 4" in all your social media, RSS feeds and Google Discover, you've probably already seen every corner of every color of Google's Pixel 2019 smartphones. Thanks to a Vietnamese shop, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL fell into the hands of YouTubers who recorded their first impressions of the devices in HD, giving us a better overview of the two smartphones. YouTubers also introduced Pixel's new Android 10 software customizations, revealing features like Screen Watch, Pixel Themes, a new user interface, and a redesigned Google camera. A prognosis sent us the version 7.0 of the Google Camera APK extracted from the pre-version Pixel 4, giving us a quick overview of the new interface of the camera.

Vietnamese YouTube channel Relab, who had previously released the first test game of the Pixel 4 XL, shared the new APK camera with our prognosis Hani (@HANI_4k). I can verify that the APK is legitimate since it has been installed in addition to the Google 6.3 camera available on the market that has been installed on my Pixel 2 XL. The changes I observed in the IU are consistent with what has been shown in the multiple leaks of the past week. The leaks did not linger too long on the new camera app because their pre-release devices were apparently bugged, but I loaded the APK to find as many changes as possible on the surface and under the hood.

First, here's what I observed in the new user interface:

• The camera modes are now located under the switch, shutter and gallery buttons. The camera switch icon is surrounded by a circle to match the shape of the other two buttons. The entire lower part of the camera interface, with the exception of the gestural navigation area and a small area above it, floats above the viewfinder (when taking 16: 9 pictures), which gives you more space to see what you are capturing. The corners of the viewfinder are also rounded to match the rounded corners of the screen. 16: 9 is called "Full View" and is the default, but you can still switch to the old 4: 3 view. As for versions 6.3 and earlier, you can still drag the viewfinder to the left or to the right to switch between camera modes.
• The top bar previously containing options such as the timer, motion pictures, and flash has been replaced with a box that appears in the middle of the viewfinder. This area is hidden by default until you tap the drop-down arrow or swipe down in the viewfinder. The camera options that appear in this area depend on the camera mode you are currently using. For example, portrait mode options include face retouching and selfie lighting, while panorama mode includes an option to toggle audio recording. Finally, you can access the general settings from the dialog box of any camera mode page rather than the "More" tab.
• Night Sight has added a new debugging option "Infinity," which probably eases astrophotography of Google Pixel 4. Previously, there were 3 Night Sight focus level options: Autofocus, Near and Far. According to Google, "Near" is focused at about 4 feet while "Far" is focused at about 12 feet.
• The zoom and exposure sliders have been changed to be smoother. The zoom slider now shows you the zoom level, while the exposure slider no longer shows the level.
• Long press the shutter button in camera mode to start recording a video while you hold down the shutter button. Videos recorded in this way are recorded in 720p resolution. This replaces the Smart Burst feature.
• Suggestions have been added to the Timelapse mode to help users choose the speed to use. 5x is described as "good for living groups", 10x as "good for walking", 30x as "good for busy places" and 120x as "good for sunsets".
• A new horizon leveling circle has been added to allow you to straighten your phone.
• Photobooth on the Pixel 3 is no longer its own mode. Instead, you will have to switch to the selfie camera and then choose the "auto" timer option.

Screenshots from Google Camera 7.0, taken from Google Pixel 4 and run on my Pixel 2 XL. Please note that I had to censor the gallery icon in many of these screenshots.

Next, here are screenshots showing the general and advanced settings of Google Camera 7.0. In summary:

• There is a new "Camera Coaching" feature that gives tips on how to take better pictures based on the scene (we've spotted an associated scene detection code). Portrait "when a face is detected in the viewfinder.
• The options for resolving camera photos are limited to "Full Resolution" and "Medium Resolution". Medium resolution produces 16: 9 photos of 4.1 MP on the Pixel 3 XL. It's a disappointing limitation and I hope it's not in the final version.
• Under Advanced Settings, you will find a new "Save Selfie as Preview" option that, when disabled, disables mirroring of photos taken from the front.
• Finally, the option not shown below can only appear on a Pixel 3 XL: "HDR + control". This feature is not new, it simply allows you to display manual control for HDR + in main camera mode. You can disable HDR +, enable or enable enhanced HDR +, which disables motion pictures.

Google Pixel Forums 4 ||| Google Pixel 4 XL Forums

That's all we found when using Google Camera 7.0 on the Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 XL. We also explored the APK to find as many code references as possible for the upcoming features of Pixel 2019, and we have all treated them in a separate article.