Google is rolling out an update to the Pixel Camera app a month after the last release, with version 8.6 introducing a few more textures that tweak and improve speech for the Pixel 6’s rear lens.
Update 9/2Google Camera version 8.6.263.471358013.15 was released widely on Friday afternoon as a small patch. There are no visible changes on the phone.
The corresponding Wear OS update (8.6.263.471358013.15) is a bug fixing tool after the initial update last month. The camera preview while watching looks HD, while the different buttons no longer have graphic errors.
Update 8/25: Another change made by Google Camera 8.6 sees the default increment in/out going from .6 to .7x in the pill-shaped adapter above the shutter button. We’ve seen this change on the Pixel 6a (114° FOV, 12MP) and 5A (117°FOV, 16MP), while it’s also supposed to be the case on 5 and 4a 5G.
You can press to restore 0.6x again, while the difference is not that significant. This matches the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro which have been 0.7 (only) since launch.
Update 8/18: New version of Google Camera 8.6 is being widely released today: 8.6.263.461063035.12 to 8.6.263.463689965.13.
This is likely to be a minor update, but it should see wider availability with the launch of Android 13 on Monday. Camera 8.6 is not released for Pixel phones running Android 12 or earlier.
Update 7/28: Google Camera 8.6 on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro (which we’ve since gotten an update) enables Speech Enhancement for the rear camera.
At launch, this feature was only intended for recording video with the front camera and works to reduce unwanted noises such as “wind, traffic and crowds”. It’s now available on the rear camera in 1080p (FHD) resolution at 30 frames per second.
Original 7/27: The main visual change today is to the “Modes” tab at the end of the library. The buttons for Panorama, Photo Sphere, and Lens are now placed in a circular rectangular container rather than being directly overlayed in the live preview.
Along with the Material You mode, these access points have also been moved to the bottom of the screen to aid access, especially if your thumb is there to tap the shutter button.
Finally, the buttons are now designed with Dynamic Color, like the other major UI elements (for example, the mode switcher and locked folder shortcut), rather than just black on a white background.
Camera 8.5 vs 8.6
We got Google Camera 8.6 on our Pixel 4a (running Android 13) this afternoon, but the new update hasn’t rolled out widely via the Play Store.
The last gap between updates was a little more (version 8.4) than two months (8.5), so this release is definitely coming sooner than expected. Presumably, it also has bug fixes, but the frequent faces feature is still broken as far as we can tell.
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