Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google has been testing the integration of Ultra HDR image capture into a limited camera API for Android 14.
What Happened: This API is designed to meet the basic camera needs of social media apps like Instagram. Once these changes are available to developers, users will be able to capture and upload Ultra HDR images to these platforms without needing a separate app, reported Android Authority.
Google announced at its I/O 2024 developer conference earlier this year that it would update its CameraX library to support Ultra HDR image capture.
Initial support for Ultra HDR capture was added to CameraX with version 1.4.0-alpha05 released in April. The full version 1.4.0 of CameraX will introduce new output format APIs to the ImageCapture and ImageCaptureCapabilities classes.
According to the API description, these images will appear as standard JPEG files on older apps or devices with SDR displays, while they will be displayed in HDR on apps and devices that have been fully updated to support the format.
Currently, only a few apps, including Google Chrome, fully support Ultra HDR. Devices capable of displaying Ultra HDR images properly include Samsung's Galaxy S24 series, Google's Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 series, and OnePlus 12 and Open.
Why It Matters: The quality of images and videos from third-party apps on Android has been a concern for a long time, with users complaining the most about output from Snap Inc.'s Snapchat.
While Google has already made some progress in tackling this issue, this new update takes its work a step further. Developers will still have to opt-in to this API to make use of this feature, so the final burden still lies with them.
In April this year, Google parent Alphabet reported a 15% year-over-year increase in first-quarter revenue, reaching $80.539 billion and surpassing the consensus estimate of $78.594 billion.
The company also reported quarterly earnings of $1.89 per share, exceeding analyst expectations of $1.51 per share.
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Photo courtesy: Google