Recently on Google’s dedicated IssueTracker website, a developer stumbled upon a issue feature in Android 11 that focuses on 3rd-party camera applications. Because I don’t speak developer, I’ll attempt to put it all as plainly as possible.
Right now on builds of Android that aren’t Android 11, when an application calls on a camera app to be used, the user has a choice of which camera app it uses, so long as a 3rd-party camera app is installed on the phone. In Android 11, the user’s option of choosing has been removed. Initially thought to be a bug, it was later confirmed by Google engineers that this move was made intentionally, citing user privacy.
While this makes the handling of the not very common case mentioned here more complicated, we believe it’s the right trade-off to protect the privacy and security of our users.
Note, apps like Snapchat and Instagram use their own built-in camera apps, so this change won’t apply to them.
Beyond that single change, nothing else appears to be getting switched up. For example, users will still be able to download and use 3rd-party camera apps and you’ll also be able to open 3rd-party camera apps via other apps — you just can’t import photos or videos with them.
There’s no shortage of apparent developers inside of Google’s forum saying that this a bad move. They seem to see it as something Apple would do to its users, forcing them to use their in-house camera app, but Google did state that this use case is “not very common.” I can’t say I’ve recently ever tried to use a 3rd-party camera in this sense (back in the days I probably did), but it’s hard to determine how many people will truly be affected by this decision.
There’s also plenty of time for Google to reverse course should they receive enough feedback, but when user privacy and security is mentioned, chances are Google won’t go back.
I use a 3rd party app because I can’t screencast video in landscape using the standard app
They fly now.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RDyFmGeQQ8o
As time goes on iOS gets more like Android and Android gets more like iOS ????????♂️
Wait… Google cares about user’s privacy? https://media1.giphy.com/media/gj0QdZ9FgqGhOBNlFS/giphy.gif
Retaliation for losing their main camera feature developer to Adobe’s camera app?
Can anyone give me an example of what someone might do currently that they won’t be able to do with this change? I’ve never personally come across this use case even when I played around with 3rd party camera. I’m just curious.
While in [SMS/IM App], you can either attach a picture that you’ve already taken, or you can attach a picture that you want to take right now. The right now option will launch a camera so you can take the picture you want to share. The camera app that launches to take that picture will now be forced. The exception, as Tim mentioned, is apps that have their own built-in camera like Instagram.
I am a Home Inspector and use the Homegauge report app on my phone to perform home inspection reports. I probably take and use an average of 25 photos per report. I use a third party camera app in the Homegauge app to reduce the file size of the photos and reduce the file size of the report when I send it out. Most photos that you take with stock cameras have a file size over 5mb for 1 photo, on the lowest settings. With a third party camera app, I can use a photo that is less than 1mb for my reports and still get the quality of photo I need for the report. The way I understand it, as long as Homegauge gives permisions to the various camera applications, everything will be fine and I can go on with what I currently do. But, if Homegauge and the various camera apps cannot reach an agreement on permisions, I will have to find another way to do the reports.
“[Developers] seem to see it as something Apple would do to its users, forcing them to use their in-house camera app, but Google did state that this use case is “not very common.”
Regardless of how often Google thinks this happens, this is another restriction of user choice, which is supposedly one of the tenets of Android.
Wow, welcome to the world of apple. This is total bullsht.
The Photoshop camera app is very cool. Lots of great effects right out of the camera.
More importantly, Adobe also recently snatched from Google the engineer most credited for the quality of the Pixel camera, Marc Levoy. Reports out of Adobe are that he’s going to work on a new camera app for Adobe that may bring some of the same software tricks and imaging choices that make the Pixel camera great to any Android phone that installs it. Wonder if concerns about this becoming popular and watering down what makes the Pixel camera unique is what is really motivating Google to do this.