Google Removes the Photo Sphere Mode from the Pixel 8 Camera | Hacker News Reader

Google Removes the Photo Sphere Mode from the Pixel 8 Camera

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59 pointsefraim44 comments

That's a shame. I don't use it a lot, but it's contributed to my photographic memories over the years. Quality was never amazing, but it could make for some fun pictures.

A somewhat related feature I miss that Google dropped a while ago is Cardboard Camera.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr....

It basically took panoramas that also included a short clip of sound, which made for some fun "relive the moment" style picture/videos. It's a bit different from video, and was especially fun in the "turn your phone into a VR headset" short-lived experiment to teleport yourself back to a moment in time. They still work in Google Photos and there's still the little cardboard "VR" mode button to view them, although I imagine that'll silently disappear at some point.

Edit: As pointed out below, the Cardboard Camera functionality is in the official Google Camera panorama mode now (under settings when in that mode).

The stereo effect Cardboard Camera produced was really good, just with a regular phone without needing any special stereo camera hardware. Shame it's not available anymore.

Yea, I agree. I similarly used it when I was moving I would take 360 photos of my old rooms or for seasonal decorations to see how the room changes over time. It looks like there are some decent 3rd party ones on the market but we'll see. It was a nice partner to cardboard.

It's also had great secondary benefits for Google Maps. I've contributed quite a few photo spheres to Google Maps over the years, which show up on Street View in areas that a Street View car would never be able to get to.

Example (not mine): https://www.google.com/maps/@49.0573911,-113.9034101,3a,75y,...

That is an impressive example.

Working for Google for free?

I like helping people. If there's an open source equivalent of Street View I can contribute my photos to I'd be happy to upload them there as well.

I'm still using Cardboard Camera. It installed on my new phone when I set up it (probably because it was on the previous device).

Have you tried grabbing the apk from somewhere?

I think you can still get it right from the Google Play app store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.sam...

Ah - I presumed the reason people were mourning it's demise was because it wasn't still on the store!

That's Cardboard (the viewer app), not Cardboard Camera (the recording app).

But as mentioned elsewhere, the official camera app does offer this functionality.

It probably doesn't do the stereo image though, right? That was the coolest part. You need a VR device to see it properly but it really adds to the photo.

Edit: Correction. The viewer app is on the store, not the camera app that allows you to take panoramas.

Cardboard Camera was a great toy. It's amazing how much more immersive that type of capture can be.

Interesting to note that panoramas in the latest Google Camera app still have the option to record audio.

> Interesting to note that panoramas in the latest Google Camera app still have the option to record audio.

You're right! I've never tapped the settings icon on the panorama view, but sure enough, there's a "audio recording" option. It's unfortunately a bit hidden and thus hard to decide on a case-by-case basis, but it's there.

This effectively replaces cardboard camera. Thanks for pointing that out!

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/cardboard-camera/

> official Google Camera

Oh - so official it won't install on any Android device I own?

Dafuq? Why?

Photo Sphere was great for posting to Facebook, which would allow users to pan around the image.

And I imagine some people were using it to post 360-degree panoramas to Google Maps.

It wasn't perfect, sure, but it was good enough. I don't know why they would remove this.

Panorama mode replaces the functionality with better quality I guess.

Does it though? I think because Panoramas flatten the image we skew it much more.

A photosphere was accurate no matter which part of the image you look at (bar any merging artifacts).

Sad to see this go. I always enjoyed making photo spheres when traveling to show family members and friends my point of view. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty darn good for what it was!

It was never perfect, but it was a great niche for storing memories of certain places in a way that pictures or a normal panorama couldn't do. That faux-3D scroll really helped capture -something- of the moment which brings everything back when you look at it.

This is a real shame. My favourite experience with photospheres was taking some with my old Google Nexus 5X.

I took quite a lot in Central London and at my family home. On a later trip to my parents' rural village in India, I brought along a Google Cardboard and spent hours showing the villagers our life in London.

These are people who live very simple lives as farmers and farm hands. They don't know much about the outside world and their lives are very much dictated by the humdrum of life within their small communities. Using the headset was perhaps the only way these people would get a chance to stand outside if the Houses of Parliament, or get a panoramic view of London from Waterloo Bridge.

I know that VR videos exist, but the ease of being able to take photos at home and giving people a VR experience to show them how we live on the other side of the world was something very special. It's one of the experiences that really shaped my view on what technology could do and how it can really help people understand one another.

That same thing is possible today, but I'd probably need a 360 camera and a different VR headset since Google Cardboard and Daydream were discontinued.

About once a year, I would go to each room of my house and use Photo Sphere Mode to take photos - instant proof for the insurance company in case of fire.

That's a damn shame, because with a case dedicated to this use case, you can put your phone on a camera tripod [1] and get really nice photospheres. In fact until I read this feature was dropped, I was anticipating hacking a Peak Design magsafe back to do exactly that.

Oh well, maybe I'll just keep using the pixel 6 pro for that. As others have noted, it's useful to upload panorama and photospheres to Google maps. Particularly for people who are sight or mobility limited, it may be their best option to virtually visit a space. Not that Google Earth isn't also useful, but people will happily crowd source images for places Google photo cars can't go. Google's "Street Trekker" program is done and even their own web page for uploading 360° imagery only references commercial cameras and not their own phones with Photosphere.

[1] https://hackaday.com/tag/photo-sphere-tripod/

For an anniversary with my wife once I took her on a VR tour of all the photospheres that I'd captured over the years at places like our old apartment or on holidays. Seeing places with strong memories but almost being there felt really meaningful, and she really loved it! So I'll really miss the photo sphere camera :(

Are there any recommended (preferably open source) Android app alternatives?

I'm not aware of any Android or mobile apps. For other platforms (Linux, Mac, Win) there are interesting tools using the Panorama Tools library that should accomplish similar tasks. https://panotools.sourceforge.net/

For a list of those tools, go to "Software using the Panorama Tools library" near 75% of the page. I've used Hugin in the past to stitch together some photos I took with my camera from a balcony to obtain a very large panorama picture.

Thanks. I should give Hugin another try. It was much more finicky than Microsoft Image Composite Editor that I've been using since 2008: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/252274/h... It's a very old tool, but zero configuration to get a decent panorama.

It was more of a gimmick with pretty subpar results anyways.

it seemed very of a piece with Google Cardboard

I was always surprised how well it worked.

I definitely didn't use it often but every time I did it came out pretty cool and without glitches or artifacts.

The result is usually pretty good when it's outdoor. It's worse when it's indoor, but that's how it generally is with any 3D panorama/photosphere app.

Used it a lot. It was the only thing I missed after switching to iOS. Google has successfully made sure that I now have no reason to switch back.

Same. I have photospheres of many remote places and would revisit them in VR. It was magical. I wish the capability was further developed instead of dropped.

Security seems like a pretty decent reason to switch. I stopped letting apple products on my home network out of Pegasus fears.

Do you switch ecosystems and products each time a new threat actor or malware toolkit shows up?

If your personal threat model warrants it, you might be better off with a feature phone instead - the attack surface on both Android and iOS are enormous.

What makes you think Pegasus doesn't have 0 Day for Android/Windows/Linux ?

Nothing in the wild.

I used this all the time on hikes. Combined with VR headsets, they were a great way to share experiences with people who lacked the physical health to otherwise get access.

I'm quite sure that they are removing it to re-add it in a few years as a brand new exclusive pro premium feature...

Why though ? :(

So they're removing features now? Didn't the Pixel 7 and Fold come out this year? Why is an 8 already out? I don't think there's really been any groundbreaking new technology or chips since like, the Pixel 5. I will exclude the Pixel Fold, because it's at least a new and interesting design, albeit Google not really doing anything special with the foldable design from what I've heard. The problem with the Pixel line is that HTC isn't given enough time to solidify their designs and end up releasing defective/ghetto hardware which is followed by Google scratching their heads and shrugging when bombarded with complaints and issues. My Pixel 1 had serious hardware issues, my Pixel 2 had a 30 minute battery life, my Pixel 3 died one day and never turned back on, and the screen on my Pixel 5a had a complete breakdown but luckily Google fixed that for free and I'm rocking this thing till it explodes. I wish they could give them a couple years between phone series to really make them more special and groundbreaking. Pixel is starting to head towards an iPhone copycat brand and nobody wants another one of those.

The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro came out last year. The 7a came out this year, which is the same pattern they've used for the past few generations. As far as the yearly cadence, well, that's what everyone does now. I agree that a couple years between generations would be better, but that doesn't seem to be the prevailing opinion.

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