Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the release of the Google Camera app in the Play Store. In 2014, Android phone cameras sucked. Like really sucked. G Cam showed how important software was to a phone camera. Geeks installed it and "fixed" their bad HTC or Moto or OnePlus cameras — and it worked. Last month, I visited Google's top-secret Pixel design studio in Mountain View and sat down with Isaac Reynolds, who leads the Pixel Camera hardware and software design to talk about how computational photography changed everything (not just for Pixel or Android, but all smartphone cameras). We also unpacked what's coming next: AI and how cameras are shifting from capture to creation. And if you wanna get nerdy about "what is a photo" we get into that too. Are we on a slippery slope with AI features allowing us to alter reality like never before? And what about selfies and body image and how photos impact how we perceive ourselves and our wellness? That's also covered. Read my @inversedotcom feature here. I put a lot of time into it. I've been wanting to write this story for years now and I'm super happy with how it came out. inverse.com/tech/google-ca… S/O to @jacobkleinman for editing this piece and @MaxWinebach @tnkgrl for getting really geeky with the walk down memory lane! 2014 was a lifetime ago and phone cameras have advanced so much since. Let's do this again and see where things are in 2034.
@raywongy Gcam saved the deeply flawed Essential Phone awful camera! Loved the phone but the camera was bad ....
@raywongy I swear, my photos have never been as good (and with so little effort) as they were on my Pixel 2. Samsung since then.
@raywongy Why can't devices release with this camera app instead ot the company's one when they know it's better..