8 ms·

Motion Stills – Now on Android

84 points by arunc 9y ago

oneplane 9y ago
It's a good thing this is getting supported on non-Apple platforms too. In time, maybe they'll all get common formats, and then we'll all have the same stuff again. This isn't about 'stealing' or who 'came first', it's about everyone getting everything.
- jvzr 9y ago
  This is not the same thing, though. I hope you realize. This is not bringing Live Photos to Android nor allowing cross-platform playback. It's just giving Android users a handy app to loop videos.
niftyneii 9y ago
The UI on this is pretty novel for an Android app; a longtime Android dev I usually get pretty pissy about UIs that feel too 'iOS'y but this one does a pretty good job of feeling 'fresh' instead of just like another iOS port. The stabilization stuff is pretty good too.
Aye_Jeigh 9y ago
I think it's kinda funny that the dreaded Pixel lens flare issue is clearly apparent in the stabilization demo.
tambourine_man 9y ago
I find it so weird that an oxymoron is accepted as product name.
- lanewinfield 9y ago
  I think that's the idea.
  - tambourine_man 9y ago
    I'm sure it is
Aissen 9y ago
I'm wondering how it competes with the stabilization algorithm available in the default video editor for Nexus/Pixel (is it in the Google Camera app for other devices?).
davidmanescu 9y ago
I'm assuming the GIF showing a phone taking a Motion Still was itself made using Motion Stills. Fun.
seltzered_ 9y ago
I'm confused. Does this imply that photos within this app can be taken similar to 'live photos' - where a single tap records both a full-res still pic AND a video? Or is this app just for recording stabilized / loopable videos? I recently switched to iOS after using Android for years and live photos are a huge draw for me. I don't care if they're stabilized or loopable, I just love the context they add in (audio, movement) while also having a still photo.
- Veratyr 9y ago
  I've got an Android phone and unfortunately no, it's just video, there's no still. I sorely miss the real Live Photos I had on iOS for the same reasons as you. There are camera apps on Android that do it (like Camera MX) but the UX isn't really comparable and you can't use Motion Stills on stuff taken outside the app.
andybak 9y ago
"We listened to your feedback and today, we're excited to announce" - doesn't anyone have a functioning cliche detector anymore? Maybe my ears are oversensitive but I find this kind of bilge insincere and off-putting. Is it a UK vs US thing? Or am I just getting cranky in old age?
- j4ybee 9y ago
  how about: "All right you entitled cunts, we made the Android version you begged for, now leave us alone."
  - rhizome 9y ago
    "Will you stop saying we can't do product now?"
  - thomk 9y ago
    LOL. Have an upvote.
  - zdkl 9y ago
    Actually the way CCP handles marketing for their game is not too far from this; a little less cheeky, buuut you get the same message. They're not trying to humanise the org, they pitch updates and features by a technical lead attached to said feature. It's hugely refreshing to enjoy reading their material because they realise explicit advertisement sucks and try to make the information they're selling you relevant and interesting. Hype is an emergent feature of their communication campaign, not the central tool. They're still trying to get you to be excited about their stuff, but they try to meet you in the middle by giving those who are interested the opportunity to dig into some details. That's how you market to nerds.
- crazygringo 9y ago
  As a product manager who writes sentences just like these, genuine question -- what would you prefer instead? Let's say this has been by far the #1 app request for the past year, and the reason you've built it is literally because it's what people have been asking for. And as a team, you're actually excited to ship it after months and months of development. Really curious how else to phrase it? Without sounding immature or unprofessional ("it's here WOOT!") -- or too self-absorbed ("Drum roll please...").
fowl2 9y ago
Whatever happened to that gimmick where an image from both the front and rear cameras was saved?
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I can do that on my phone. Samsung allows you to download modes for the camera. One of those is dual camera. It's fun sometimes.
wybiral 9y ago
I texted a GIF from my Pixel and it was really blocky, even at the highest setting. It doesn't look bad during playback or when uploaded to Photos though. Is this an MMS issue or something?
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I just used it on my S7 and shared it on whatsapp: looks very high quality to me. You can try changing the gif quality from settings, although the default worked fine for me.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    I tried at the medium (default) and highest. Oddly enough the highest quality setting was the most blocky so I'm guessing the MMS or Pixel->Iphone text did something weird? Either way, the app is neat and I think this is just an artifact in the MMS stage rather than the files.
- mastax 9y ago
  I also have issues sending video over MMS. I think the issue is just the design of MMS. It was designed back when dumbphones ruled, so it was designed to have cell networks transcode media into a compatible format for the target device. The cell networks don't want to spend the cpu cycles or perhaps engineer time to do it properly. Perhaps RCS[0] solves this issue, but I think everyone will have switched to WhatsApp, et. al by then. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services
oDot 9y ago
The camera app I truly miss on Android is Instagram's Hyperlapse. They should make it happen!
bmc7505 9y ago
Seems like an productized implementation of Hyperlapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpwHaQnRSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpwHaQnRSY
- skeletonjelly 9y ago
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.hyperlapsemobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.... has existed for years
owenversteeg 9y ago
So I hadn't heard of this and I thought the name was for taking a still photo from a video. Sadly, that's not what this does, so does anybody know a good solution that does this? It's 2017, I feel like "hit spacebar in VLC and screenshot" is a really poor way of extracting still images from video. So what is the highest-quality way to extract a still from a video?
- whiddershins 9y ago
  Photoshop can extract frames from a video, from which you can save animated gifs or just single frame stills. Premiere or Final Cut can easily export single frames as stills. As for doing it with free tools, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a number of good ways.
- GuiA 9y ago
  If you want to do it interactively, what do you want that frame capturing from VLC doesn't offer? If you want to do it programmatically, what do you want that ffmpeg doesn't offer?
bambax 9y ago
> In order to display your Motion Stills stream immediately, our algorithm computes and stores the necessary stabilizing transformation as a low resolution texture map. We leverage this texture to apply the stabilization transform using the GPU in real-time during playback, instead of writing a new, stabilized video that would tax your mobile hardware and battery. But doesn't this mean videos can only be shared/viewed within the app? How does one share videos with users that are not on Android 5.1+ then (and who therefore can't even install the app)?
- pgeorgi 9y ago
  I think the keyword is >> "immediately" The GPU texture mapping thing is the strategy employed for immediate feedback in the app. The stabilized video can still be rendered to a file in the background (and/or while plugged in) later.

84 points by arunc 9y ago

It's a good thing this is getting supported on non-Apple platforms too. In time, maybe they'll all get common formats, and then we'll all have the same stuff again. This isn't about 'stealing' or who 'came first', it's about everyone getting everything.

jvzr 9y ago
This is not the same thing, though. I hope you realize. This is not bringing Live Photos to Android nor allowing cross-platform playback. It's just giving Android users a handy app to loop videos.

niftyneii 9y ago

The UI on this is pretty novel for an Android app; a longtime Android dev I usually get pretty pissy about UIs that feel too 'iOS'y but this one does a pretty good job of feeling 'fresh' instead of just like another iOS port. The stabilization stuff is pretty good too.

Aye_Jeigh 9y ago

I think it's kinda funny that the dreaded Pixel lens flare issue is clearly apparent in the stabilization demo.

tambourine_man 9y ago

I find it so weird that an oxymoron is accepted as product name.

lanewinfield 9y ago
I think that's the idea.
- tambourine_man 9y ago
  I'm sure it is

Aissen 9y ago

I'm wondering how it competes with the stabilization algorithm available in the default video editor for Nexus/Pixel (is it in the Google Camera app for other devices?).

davidmanescu 9y ago

I'm assuming the GIF showing a phone taking a Motion Still was itself made using Motion Stills. Fun.

seltzered_ 9y ago

I'm confused. Does this imply that photos within this app can be taken similar to 'live photos' - where a single tap records both a full-res still pic AND a video? Or is this app just for recording stabilized / loopable videos? I recently switched to iOS after using Android for years and live photos are a huge draw for me. I don't care if they're stabilized or loopable, I just love the context they add in (audio, movement) while also having a still photo.

Veratyr 9y ago
I've got an Android phone and unfortunately no, it's just video, there's no still. I sorely miss the real Live Photos I had on iOS for the same reasons as you. There are camera apps on Android that do it (like Camera MX) but the UX isn't really comparable and you can't use Motion Stills on stuff taken outside the app.

andybak 9y ago

"We listened to your feedback and today, we're excited to announce" - doesn't anyone have a functioning cliche detector anymore? Maybe my ears are oversensitive but I find this kind of bilge insincere and off-putting. Is it a UK vs US thing? Or am I just getting cranky in old age?

j4ybee 9y ago
how about: "All right you entitled cunts, we made the Android version you begged for, now leave us alone."
- rhizome 9y ago
  "Will you stop saying we can't do product now?"
- thomk 9y ago
  LOL. Have an upvote.
- zdkl 9y ago
  Actually the way CCP handles marketing for their game is not too far from this; a little less cheeky, buuut you get the same message. They're not trying to humanise the org, they pitch updates and features by a technical lead attached to said feature. It's hugely refreshing to enjoy reading their material because they realise explicit advertisement sucks and try to make the information they're selling you relevant and interesting. Hype is an emergent feature of their communication campaign, not the central tool. They're still trying to get you to be excited about their stuff, but they try to meet you in the middle by giving those who are interested the opportunity to dig into some details. That's how you market to nerds.
crazygringo 9y ago
As a product manager who writes sentences just like these, genuine question -- what would you prefer instead? Let's say this has been by far the #1 app request for the past year, and the reason you've built it is literally because it's what people have been asking for. And as a team, you're actually excited to ship it after months and months of development. Really curious how else to phrase it? Without sounding immature or unprofessional ("it's here WOOT!") -- or too self-absorbed ("Drum roll please...").

fowl2 9y ago

Whatever happened to that gimmick where an image from both the front and rear cameras was saved?

dingo_bat 9y ago
I can do that on my phone. Samsung allows you to download modes for the camera. One of those is dual camera. It's fun sometimes.

wybiral 9y ago

I texted a GIF from my Pixel and it was really blocky, even at the highest setting. It doesn't look bad during playback or when uploaded to Photos though. Is this an MMS issue or something?

dingo_bat 9y ago
I just used it on my S7 and shared it on whatsapp: looks very high quality to me. You can try changing the gif quality from settings, although the default worked fine for me.
- wybiral 9y ago
  I tried at the medium (default) and highest. Oddly enough the highest quality setting was the most blocky so I'm guessing the MMS or Pixel->Iphone text did something weird? Either way, the app is neat and I think this is just an artifact in the MMS stage rather than the files.
mastax 9y ago
I also have issues sending video over MMS. I think the issue is just the design of MMS. It was designed back when dumbphones ruled, so it was designed to have cell networks transcode media into a compatible format for the target device. The cell networks don't want to spend the cpu cycles or perhaps engineer time to do it properly. Perhaps RCS[0] solves this issue, but I think everyone will have switched to WhatsApp, et. al by then. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services

oDot 9y ago

The camera app I truly miss on Android is Instagram's Hyperlapse. They should make it happen!

bmc7505 9y ago

Seems like an productized implementation of Hyperlapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpwHaQnRSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpwHaQnRSY

skeletonjelly 9y ago
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.hyperlapsemobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.... has existed for years

owenversteeg 9y ago

So I hadn't heard of this and I thought the name was for taking a still photo from a video. Sadly, that's not what this does, so does anybody know a good solution that does this? It's 2017, I feel like "hit spacebar in VLC and screenshot" is a really poor way of extracting still images from video. So what is the highest-quality way to extract a still from a video?

whiddershins 9y ago
Photoshop can extract frames from a video, from which you can save animated gifs or just single frame stills. Premiere or Final Cut can easily export single frames as stills. As for doing it with free tools, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a number of good ways.
GuiA 9y ago
If you want to do it interactively, what do you want that frame capturing from VLC doesn't offer? If you want to do it programmatically, what do you want that ffmpeg doesn't offer?

bambax 9y ago

> In order to display your Motion Stills stream immediately, our algorithm computes and stores the necessary stabilizing transformation as a low resolution texture map. We leverage this texture to apply the stabilization transform using the GPU in real-time during playback, instead of writing a new, stabilized video that would tax your mobile hardware and battery. But doesn't this mean videos can only be shared/viewed within the app? How does one share videos with users that are not on Android 5.1+ then (and who therefore can't even install the app)?

pgeorgi 9y ago
I think the keyword is >> "immediately" The GPU texture mapping thing is the strategy employed for immediate feedback in the app. The stabilized video can still be rendered to a file in the background (and/or while plugged in) later.