How does this feature work: "toggle for controlling direct access to Tensor hardware accelerators (TPU, GXP) by certain Google apps for users to choose whether Google apps can use more than the portable Android hardware acceleration features such as the Neural Networks API (direct access does not give them any additional data)"
And where is this toggle?

    Themble
    I can't answer the first part of the question but the toggle is the last option under Settings > Apps > Special app access, and it looks like its on by default.

      vvf69107 Alpha/beta channels in GrapheneOS are not the same as what you would see in other projects.

      There won't be an Android 14 beta channel running alongside Android 13. When it's time for the project to move to Android 14, everything will be ported and a production release will be made. That release (as all releases for the OS as well as first-party apps) will go through the alpha channel first, then beta and then stable.

      The alpha/beta channels are a way for people to be able to test the (production) releases as they make their way to stable. People in the alpha channel test it first, if no issues are found, it's moved to beta, and if no issues are found there either, it makes it to stable.

      I hope that helps!

      https://grapheneos.org/releases#about-the-releases

      Releases are tested by the developers and are then pushed out via the Alpha channel. The release is then pushed out via the Beta channel shortly afterwards. Finally, the release is then pushed out via the Stable channel after being tested by some users using the Beta channel. In some cases, problems are caught during Beta channel testing and a new release is made via the Beta channel to replace the aborted one. In general, it's not possible to downgrade unless a downgrade update package is generated, so use the Stable channel if you cannot tolerate dealing with temporary issues while a new release for the Beta channel is being created.

      So does the TPU/GXP toggle mean that Google Camera can now be installed without Sandboxed Google Play and retain all the same functionality as on stock OS, or no?

        2dognight Google Camera required GSF (Google Services Framework) to work in the past, which changed in the second to last release. You can now install it without any of the 3 Google apps.

        That said, some functionality, like the AR features will require Play Services.

        The latest update makes it so Google Camera can take advantage of the direct GXP access on Pixel 7 / 7 Pro (it already had direct TPU access, and that is also relevant to earlier Pixels instead of just 7th gen ones). Direct TPU/GXP access for these apps is now enabled by default, and can be optionally disabled for attack surface reduction.

        The apps having this access doesn't add more features, but it does significantly increase the performance of these apps.

        All of these changes are now documented, so I would also recommend reading through this section:

        https://grapheneos.org/usage#google-camera

          I've tried gcam with the switch both on and off and I can't tell the difference. Pixel 6 Pro, testing with portrait mode, gcam installed via aurora.

            csis01 The big difference is noticed on 7th gen Pixels and portrait mode. You can see that multiple people reported significant delays prior to allowing direct GXP access to Google Camera with this latest update:

            https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/1815-google-camera-very-slow-portrait-mode-processing

            The same person who started that thread now reports that leaving this toggle on results in a significant performance increase, which is equivalent to their experience on Stock OS.

            All that to say, the toggle definitely does what it's supposed to, but depending on which Pixel you're using, it may be less or more noticeable if you disable the toggle.

              matchboxbananasynergy Ok, then how is it expected to work on Pixel 6 when the toggle is enabled? I'm seeing it taking around 10+ seconds per image whether enabled or not. I can snap 4 shots in rapid succession and then it locks up for a while until at least one image has been processed.

              2dognight @matchboxbananasynergy unless this setting persists from Owner to Work profiles, this is yet another useless feature unfortunately. I would be willing to bet a majority of GOS users exclusively use Work profiles or multiple accounts for separation. Are there any plans to make Owner only settings be toggleable on non-owner accounts?

                Something is definitely not right.

                Rebooted on magisk boot.img and ran "setenforce 0" --> Processes each image in 2 seconds. "setenforce 1" and its over 10 seconds.

                  gosrox The setting is global. Toggling it on in owner makes it apply everywhere. I'd rather you asked a question rather than proclaiming that a feature that's added is useless without having all of the information. :)

                  An option only being available in the owner profile doesn't mean it only affects the owner profile. It means that secondary users (which in some case can be actually different people, as this is the intended use case for multiple users) cannot toggle those settings.

                  csis01 Feel free to open an issue on GitHub about it. It definitely seems to have resolved issues with portrait mode on Pixel 7 series devices. You may just be expecting it to have performance that it also doesn't have on Stock OS.

                    csis01 To be clear, are you saying that you see Google Camera being slower after this update regardless of whether you leave the toggle its default enabled state or disable it, and that there's a performance decrease compared to the previous GrapheneOS release?

                    This shouldn't be the case at all. You mentioned magisk, so I want to make sure if you're running an official GrapheneOS release and not doing anything unsupported. If you can run a proper GrapheneOS release and the above is the case, please open an issue on GitHub about this so that it can be looked into.

                      Hello, I'm not very tech savvy. Does the toggle have any sense if my only Google app is GBoard on the owner profile and GSF on a secondary profile ?