The Galaxy S10’s ultra-wide angle camera was formerly accessible in WhatsApp as a third-party app, but a new update makes the rear camera available for third-party apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, VSCO, and others.
The new update adds an “Ultra-Wide SDK for 3rd Party,” the changelog says. Formerly, apps such as Instagram could only support a 68-degree Field of View (FOV) for selfies or a manual, 80-degree FOV only. The new update allows Instagram and other apps to take advantage of the full 80-degree FOV automatically.
In order for the Ultra-Wide SDK to be effective, third-party apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and others must be updated as well; the Galaxy S10 update alone isn’t sufficient. Along with Ultra-Wide Angle Camera access for third-party apps, the new Galaxy S10 update brings improved picture quality to low-light shots in Night Mode with the addition of the Ultra-Wide lens.
The Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ now have the added Wide and Tele modes on Live Focus in their rear cameras. Color stability has been improved. Outside of camera improvements, Samsung has fixed a Gear VR connection issue. A Sero TV mirroring issue has been corrected, and the Galaxy S10 has received the May 2019 security patch.
The benefit of third-party access to Samsung’s Ultra-Wide Angle Camera is that Galaxy S10 users will be able to take photos within their apps instead of just using their phone’s native camera to take photos, then upload them to their favorite apps.
Additionally, allowing Ultra-Wide Angle Camera access means that app companies will be able to take advantage of Samsung’s camera improvements to enhance photos within their apps as well. Users won’t have non-Samsung-based apps that provide worse camera performance than that of the Galaxy S10.
The Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, and Galaxy S10e feature a 16MP Ultra-Wide Camera. The Ultra-Wide Camera features dual f/1.5 and f/2.4 camera apertures and provides a 123-degree FOV to capture as much as your eyes can see.
The Galaxy S10 update designed to improve photography was rumored in April, where leaker Ice Universe revealed on Twitter that Samsung’s cameras would include an algorithm to improve both daylight and low-light photography.
Samsung’s Galaxy S10 included a Bright Night camera mode that was not the dedicated camera mode users expected but rather, an existing part of the Scene Optimizer feature. Bright Night was ultimately limited in what it could do for users as well as what users could do to enhance the brightness of a scene, meaning that photos turned out to lose lots of low-light details.
The old Bright Night Mode was auto-tuned to determine whether the scene needed more or less light, without a manual option for users to toggle brightness on or off. Samsung announced the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ alongside the Galaxy S10e on February 20, 2019 in Seoul, South Korea, London, United Kingdom, and San Francisco, California (US).
The Korean giant introduced four smartphones to mark ten years of innovation in its Galaxy S series: 1) Galaxy S10, 2) Galaxy S10+, 3) the ultra-affordable Galaxy S10e, and the Galaxy S10 5G for those who want the fastest internet speeds on a next-generation smartphone.