Big changes are coming to the camera in Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro

(Image credit: Android Authority)

published 21 August 2023

With the launch of the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro due very soon, all kinds of things are starting to leak – so for example we've seen some of the new colours, porcelain and sky. And now a new leak tells us that the camera in both Pixels is getting a big app upgrade.

According to Android Authority, the camera app in the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro is getting its biggest revamp in years. The current design is four years old, which is an eternity in smartphones: compare the cameras of a typical 2019 flagship to the ones in the best Android phones today and you'll see what I mean. So an updated Camera app is a very welcome improvement.

What's new in the cameras for Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro

Android Authority's anonymous Google insider has given the site a good look at the new interface, and there are definitely some welcome and worthwhile improvements. One of the most obvious changes is that the photo and video modes are now completely separate: there's a toggle right at the bottom of the display to switch between them. And the settings pop-up is now a bottom-up swipe, the opposite of the current behaviour.

Motion has now been split into Long Exposure and Action Pan – a reshuffle of existing modes rather than an introduction of any new ones – and the Cinematic Pan has been renamed to Pan and given its own mode too. Stabilisation options have been moved into the pop-up with three settings: standard, active and locked.

In addition to the revised camera app, we're expecting both Pixels to get significant photography upgrades. The 50MP Samsung GN2 will be the main camera for both models, and the Pro is reportedly getting a 64MP ultrawide usoing the same Sony IMX787 as the Pixel 7a.

Google is also reportedly working on three new software features: Adaptive Torch, which will adjust the flash to reduce the risk of overly flashy low-light shots; Staggered HDR, which makes high dynamic range photos less noisy; and Segmentation AWB, which will use different processing in different parts of the same image to get a better, more accurate result. Between software improvements, hardware improvements and the new app, both Pixels are looking like significant upgrades for smartphone snappers – albeit slightly more expensive ones than the current models.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).