Android 17 could finally make your phone’s camera work better in third-party apps. Long time coming, right?
Essentially, what’s going on here is that Android 17 Beta 3 is allowing vendor-defined camera extensions. So phone makers like Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, etc., are able to share custom camera features with all Android apps. This, in theory, could help improve the photo and video quality in apps like Instagram and Snapchat. Which would solve one of the biggest complaints that users have with Android.
According to Google, “Android 17 adds support for Vendor-defined camera extensions, allowing hardware partners to provide Android apps access to camera features like ‘Super Resolution’ or cutting-edge AI-driven enhancements.”
This would still require input from Google’s hardware partners
Unfortunately, this isn’t something that Google can do, and just have it work across every device using Android 17. OEMs will need to implement this on their end, and provide access to their camera features for apps. Which may or may not happen. Typically, OEMs are very protective over their cameras and camera software because it’s one of the big things that differentiates their phones from their competitors.
Keep in mind, that app developers would also need to implement this to work. So Google took the first step, but there’s still much more that needs to be done.
Though, we aren’t expecting the first Android 17 updates or phones, to roll out until this Summer. So there’s time. It would be surprising if Google didn’t implement this on the Pixel, themselves with the Android 17 update, and also with the Pixel 11 in August.
If this is implemented, and implemented correctly, Snapchat could get a major update on Android. Currently, Snapchat does a screen recording of the camera app on Android, which explains why the camera quality is so terrible.
