Google’s Night Sight mode is gaining a promotion within the Google Camera Android app at the expense of Panorama.
This relates specifically to version 6.3 of the Google Camera app, and is based on a new report from 9to5 Google.
In previous versions of the app, including the currently available version 6.2, Night Mode has been resigned to a background feature. One where you have to scroll through the carousel of options until you reach the “More” tab. Once clicked on a new set of additional options are shown, including “Night Sight.”
This is in comparison to the likes of “Panorama,” “Portrait,” “Camera,” and “Video” which are all listed as part of the main carousel – along with More.
In the new version of the app, however, Night Mode has seemingly assumed the position of Panorama in the list and considering the app always launches on the “Camera” tab, the quickest way to now launch Night Mode is to simply swipe right twice.
Of course, this is only when the user is actively looking to enter Night Mode as one of the features that’s already in use within the Google Camera app is the automatic Night Mode suggestion. Here, when the camera detects that the lightning conditions are not ideal and that Night Mode might be able to help, the system itself launches a “Try Night Sight” prompt to the user allowing for a one-click activation of Night Mode.
Another result of this change is those who previously used the Panorama mode routinely will now find their ease of access has been sacrificed in a bid to give Night Mode more prominence – due to the two essentially swapping places in the UI, users will need to now scroll through to “More” to launch the secondary options, including accessing “Panorama.”
While the prominence promotion of Night Mode is what’s gaining the most attention with this update so far, it is not the only change that seems to be in effect. For example, the thermometer icon that’s currently visible in the top bar (along with the timer, motion and flash options) appears to have been removed in the new app version.
Unlike the Panorama/Night Sight change, this one has not come with a replacement but instead simply sees the icon removed from prominence resulting in just the timer, motion and flash icons visible when accessing any mode within the camera app.
There are also a number of other smaller changes to the UI in general, including the renaming of the artificial flash feature used when taking photos with the front-facing camera to “illumination.” Put simply, with the new update in effect, users will no longer choose between “flash off.” “flash auto’ and “flash on” when using the front-facing camera. Instead, they will either turn on or off “illumination.”
At present, it’s not clear when this new version of the Google Camera app will become generally available. It has yet to be pushed to the Google Play Store and devices have yet to start receiving an app update. The changes detailed were noted in a version of the app that’s said to be present in a new version of Android Q, although there’s no suggestion this version of the app (or the changes mentioned here) will be reserved solely for devices running on Android Q.