Your Google Pixel may make astrophotography shots even easier
PixieI Phones have had an Astrophotography mode for generations, allowing users to take amazing photos of the stars at night. To use this mode, however, you first need to enable the Night Sight feature, but that may change soon in a future update.
The unofficial Google News Channel on Telegram discovered that it might be possible to manually enable Astrophotography mode on Pixel. According to the channel’s findings, the change will roll out with the release of the Pixel Camera app version 9.5.118.
To enable this feature, users need to go to the Night Sight Quick Settings menu and enable Astrophotography. Online reports say you can switch modes on the fly by scrolling the slider from “Auto” to “Astro” in Night Sight. It’s denoted by an icon of a crescent moon with a plus sign, and it should be much easier to enable quickly.
Pressing the shutter button starts a five-second timer, and this short window allows you to position your phone in a stable location before it starts taking long-exposure photos of the night sky. It does this for about four minutes. Processing a final image can take some time, and reportedly depends on the age of the phone and the “exposure length.”
Android Authority Users can change the timer from five seconds to three or ten seconds. Or, if you prefer, you can just turn the whole thing off. However, there doesn’t seem to be a way to shorten or lengthen the exposure time. 9to5Googleclaims in their report that the four minutes are a fixed number that cannot be adjusted.
Keep in mind that your Pixel phone will still need to be in optimal lighting conditions to take a photo of the night sky. While Astrophotography mode will help, it’s not magic.
Sideload the update
Officially, the update is not available to anyone; however unofficial. If you want, you can sideload the Pixel Camera version 9.5. 118 APK (Android Package Kit) on your Pixel smartphone. Installing the software also gets you extra video tools and exclusive Pixel 8 Pro features such as Pro Controls for customizing the rear camera system.
There are a few things you need to know. First, the Pixel Camera APK bundle is huge at 500MB. 9To5Google says that you can’t just download the APK for the app, as it will prompt you with a message that you’re using an “invalid version of Google Camera.” Second, you need to download the APKMirror app installed on your mobile device, which is available on the Google Play Store.
Reactions to the Pixel subreddit claim that the bundle is safe; however, downloading files from an unverified third-party source always carries the risk of malware. We recommend waiting for Google to roll out the update, although that may take some time. If you understand the risk, you can find the bundle on the APKMirror website.
Be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best Pixel phones for 2024.
