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Summary
- Google is working to add Ultra HDR image capture support to the CameraX API, allowing third-party apps to take Ultra HDR photos on Android 14 devices.
- The new JPEG_R format will be used for Ultra HDR images, rendering them differently depending on the device’s display capabilities.
- The fragmented Android smartphone market makes it difficult for camera app developers to ensure compatibility across brands, hampering progress in utilizing the full potential of the latest camera APIs.
The plight of any Gen Z or millennial who grew up with an Android smartphone is the annoyance of how horrible photos and videos look when captured with Snapchat. Heck, this author even remembers the theories other kids had to explain how horrible the quality of some Snaps was. Some of those theories turned out to be true, like people saying that a screenshot was taken of the camera’s viewfinder. Despite a trip down memory lane, the Android camera API situation is a mess. Third-party camera apps have had varying levels of difficulty enabling certain features across the camera spectrum on Android devices due to missing API versions and compatibility issues. Android 14 added Ultra HDR support to images taken with the default camera app, but apps beyond Google Photos haven’t been able to use it. That seems to be changing.
According Mishaal Rahman, Google is preparing to add Ultra HDR image capture support to the CameraX API. That means any third-party app, like Snapchat, that uses the latest API for image capture, unlike Snapchat, will be able to take Ultra HDR photos. Those images will not be saved in the widely used JPEG format, but in JPEG_R. This new format reproduces images differently depending on whether the screen supports UltraHDR or SDR. It’s pretty brilliant, and when third-party apps get their hands on this capability, it will (hopefully) be awesome. Apps that market their advanced camera features will most likely take advantage of this rather than social media apps.
There’s a reason why so many people prefer iPhones for any type of photography, and it’s part of the double-edged sword that makes so many people love Android in the first place. The Android smartphone market is filled with many different manufacturers and there is never a one-size-fits-all solution for app compatibility. This makes it difficult for many camera app developers to support spending resources on a wide range of phone brands running Android. It’s easier to just deal with Apple. Additionally, many third-party apps rely on older camera APIs, such as Camera1 or Camera2, because older Android phones only support those APIs. To reach the greatest number of people, apps must resort to the lowest common denominator, which undermines progress in this regard.
Until Android smartphone brands and apps are forced to use a universal camera API, it’s hard for some of us to care too much about how awesome the hardware can be. Cameras are better than ever, but if the software is not properly configured to use them across the entire spectrum of camera-related products, then we are at a bottleneck. Nowadays, smartphone cameras come with at least two lenses, while three lenses are the norm on high-end phones. Last May we asked which rear camera lens is most important to our readers, and an overwhelming percentage said they needed a dedicated macro camera on their next smartphone purchase. However, if you’re part of the minority that likes ultrawide photography, there are several phones that might be of interest to you.