GrapheneOS camera: Portrait, Night shot, etc.

Volen

Hi Guys,

It says on GrapheneOS website: https://grapheneos.org/usage#grapheneos-camera-app

GrapheneOS includes our own modern camera app focused on privacy and security. It includes modes for capturing images, videos and QR / barcode scanning along with additional modes based on CameraX vendor extensions (Portrait, HDR, Night, Face Retouch and Auto) on devices where they're available (not available on Pixels yet).

If we follow the link they posted, it clearly shows Pixel devices in the list so it seems its all available on Pixel phones.

So:

Why the webisite says these are not available for Pixels yet?
As Pixel devices are in the list, why the built-in camera still doesn't have all these features? Is it because they are not implemented yet? Any ETAs for this? Thanks.

ReadOnlyUser

The camera app supports these features depending on the camera API provided by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, Google does not share all their fancy features by the API. Other manufacturer may be more generous in this regards. So nothing wrong with the statement...

Volen

ReadOnlyUser

Thanks for clarification.

It seems we might potentially never get these as Google might not ever share these.

ReadOnlyUser

Volen
I'm afraid this might be really true ;-)

epic_gos_user

Doesn't the Pixel Camera Services app bring these features to the API? (I am entirely in the dark in this topic, so this might be completely unrelated but looks like it has the goods in it)

Pixel Camera Services is a system component that brings Pixel Camera features like Night Sight to some 3rd party apps that you’ve granted permission to use your camera. This component is pre-installed on your device and should be kept up to date to ensure you have the latest image processing updates and other bug fixes.

I have it installed, it's modest in size (50MB) and doesn't even need Network permission, only declares 6 permissions in total (Read GSF, access network state, get package size, wake lock, camera, sensors), and in the screenshots it shows Night Sight in a 3rd-party camera app. Not sure if any work is needed to be done from GOS side, I will test out if it works in GOS Camera later today

Edit: if it does turn out to implement night sight, it might be a good idea to put it in the Apps repo client so it can be auto-updated with the rest of proprietary Google apps and easily installed for new users that want Night Sight. Of course some people don't want any proprietary Google tech but I see no risk in this as it literally can't talk to the network

Volen

epic_gos_user

I have this installed too but Night Sight never works on GOS camera. It seems the GOS camera is not using this module for some reason.

I think we can open a ticket on Github and ask Devs to have a look.

matchboxbananasynergy

epic_gos_user Doesn't the Pixel Camera Services app bring these features to the API? (I am entirely in the dark in this topic, so this might be completely unrelated but looks like it has the goods in it)

This is not related to the GrapheneOS camera app getting these features or not. This is for 3rd party apps like Snapchat to gain the ability to use things like night sight within their in-app camera.

GrapheneOS camera uses CameraX. The camera app already supports these features for devices that support them (Some Samsung devices are an example of this). Pixels will eventually get them, and they will then show up in the GrapheneOS camera there as well.

ReadOnlyUser

Apps are just allowed to communicate with each other on a mutual consent. So possible counterparts have to be defined in both app manifest files. I'm pretty sure that no Google app will allow communication with a GOS app. So this won't work out.
By the way, the above mentioned communication is also called Inter Process Communication (IPC). So kind of loosely coupled communication during runtime. Other than that, an API (Application Programming Interface) is used to access libraries, drivers or other kind of software on sourcecode level. So it has to be considered during development of the app. In this example the camera app utilizes methods from the camera driver or middleware that provides the fancy features. It's up to the manufacturer to provide proper functionality to each of the interfaces or just stub them. Since Google stubbed a lot of them, the corresponding functionality is not available to 3rd party apps. The official GCam might access them by other (private) interfaces or IPC with mutual consent.

Just to sum up, it's unlikely that GOS Camera will be able to access functionality of a Google app.

Volen

matchboxbananasynergy

I have 3 Samsung devices (S21, Note 20 Ultra and S22 Plus) but GOS camera doesn't show any extra modes vs on my Pixel.

So its a bit confusing which phones, exactly, have these extra features enabled.

abcZ

matchboxbananasynergy Actually, programs like "snapchat" also would miss those features if they use CameraX.

Pawelek85

Hi,
When will Snapchat support CameraX? Why doesn't it work? In the release changelog I see mentions that CameraX is supposedly supported...

Elk9877

Is there any concrete estimate for when these APIs will be made available by Google if at all?

The FAQ says "There isn't a timeline for this but an initial implementation will likely be shipped within the next year for Pixels."

Volen

Elk9877

I doubt Google will ever release it. There is a request on their page to add this and it is open for good 2 years now with no action from Google. I would say it won't happen.

matchboxbananasynergy

Volen Night mode is already available on Pixels on the Stock OS. It'll come to GrapheneOS soon after higher priority items are done. It currently depends on Play Services so the goal is to integrate it in a way that doesn't. Planned.

UpStream

matchboxbananasynergy What is preventing GrapheneOS from accessing this features? Are this features a part of the OS or a part of the camera app?
Whenever I install the google cam I have all the other features the GrapheneOS camera doesn't have meaning the google camera can somehow access that. Therefore its already on my device and it should be possible to reverse engineer it and make it accessible to the GrapheneOS cam.

Volen

matchboxbananasynergy

For me personally, the biggest dealbreaker is the lack of postprocessing (images taken with any 3rd party camera apps are much less detailed vs the ones taken with the native camera app). Next being the portrait mode. But these are not related to Graphene, we need to wait for Google to allow these.