Google inexplicably takes away wide-angle astrophotography from Pixel phones

Pixel 5 and 4a 5G users can no longer use their ultrawide cameras to take pictures of the stars: Google apparently removed the lens's astrophotography capabilities with the Google Camera 8.1 update. The feature was a selling point of the Pixel 4, and was available connected the every day and telephotograph cameras. When the 4a 5G and 5 were announced with new wide-tip lenses, the feature was added to those too. Now it's been purloined away.

The astrophotography feature lets users capture the night sky by pointing their phone finished and keeping it still, either by reconciliation IT on a close targe or putt information technology on a tripod. The feature is shut up for sale on the phones' other cameras, but if you attend Night Sight mode and shift to the ultrawide camera, you'll now get a warning locution "Zoom to 1x for astrophotography." Before the update it would say "Astrophotography on."

Google didn't respond to our bespeak for gossip request wherefore information technology had successful the deepen, but it did update its low-reddened photography stomach document to add up the following caveat:

Important: Connected Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5, astrophotography only whole works connected zoom settings equal to or greater than 1x.

Taking a consider the Wayback Machine, we can undergo that this change occurred some time between November 1st and November 7th. It's slightly odd timing given that the update wasn't discharged until a couple of days afterwards.

A screenshot of a forum post comparing the two cameras' results in astrophotography mode. — *A Google Pixel Phone forum user's posted comparisons of the ultrawide (tip) and standard slant lenses shot in astrophotography mode.*

For an explanation as to why the feature may have been cut, you keister check out this thread on Google's Pel Phone Help forum. It has examples from two users, showing the results astrophotography mode produced on the Picture element 5's standing photographic camera, compared to what the ultrawide lens system put out. I'll let you judge the pictures for yourself. The forum post, however, is another bit of timing bizarreness — it was ready-made days after the update removing the feature had already started roll out.

Given that the update was down for a month and a half before most multitude really started noticing that the sport had been removed, it may be obvious wherefore Google thought it could get out without mentioning it in the changelog. Even if IT's a characteristic that North Korean won't be missed by many an, information technology still stands as a admonisher that the software features you puzzle out used to on your phone may beryllium subject to vary.

Update December 29th, 12:20PM ET: A previous adaptation of this article compared the feature being expropriated away to Google discontinuing the Pixel's unlimited original quality storage in Google Photos. That switch only applies to new Pel phones, as existing ones are guardianship the level of Google Photos storage that was in the beginning publicized , so it wasn't a great analogy.