On this week's episode, we break down how camera APIs work in Android and why third-party camera apps just can't match the features and quality produced by the stock camera. Long story short, it's a mess. What gives? And what's being done about it?
We're joined by Mohit Shetty, a developer behind Secure Camera, the camera app on GrapheneOS and available to everyone on the Play Store.
- 01:48 - How does hardware fragmentation make camera app development on Android inherently more challenging than on iOS?
- 03:52 - Was there anything Google could have done in the early days to make things better?
- 08:21 - Why don't OEMs bother with making sure third-party camera apps work the same as the stock camera app?
- 12:27 - What are some features that OEMs can't expose to third-party camera apps through Android's camera API?
- 17:20 - How does Android's camera architecture work? What is Camera HAL 3?
- 20:23 - How will Google Requirements Freeze (GRF) affect camera HAL versioning?
- 24:11 - How do third-party camera apps interface with multiple cameras?
- 29:28 - What is the Camera2 API?
- 32:52 - What is CameraX and what can (and can't) it do?
Android Bytes is hosted by Mishaal Rahman, Senior Technical Editor, and David Ruddock, Editor in Chief, of Esper.
Esper enables next-gen device management for company-owned and managed tablets, kiosks, smart phones, IoT edge devices, and more.
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