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Android's Camera API has existed for _literally years_ to take high-quality photos and these guys are still just taking a screenshot of the viewfinder and calli

Android's Camera API has existed for _literally years_ to take high-quality photos and these guys are still just taking a screenshot of the viewfinder and calling it a day. It's been like this forever and Snap has refused to fix this. I have yet to come across any other app on Android that utilizes the camera this way. The photos are complete garbage. And here they are, trying to add more 'features' into an app where its main feature has been inherently broken since inception. edit: this post kinda blew up. to see a real side-by-side comparison, https://imgur.com/a/wuaZi https://imgur.com/a/wuaZi

therealmarv 9y ago
omg they are really doing this? A shame!
lnx01 9y ago
I cannot wrap my head around why it was even implemented like this in the first place. Were they too lazy to look up the Camera API implemetation? Was it a hacky workaround to avoid some retriction in Android?
- dannyw 9y ago
  It could be for a variety of reasons; 1. Compatibility with old devices or API levels 2. Performance optimisation for the filters 3. Lack of priority for the Android app On my iPhone, Snapchat definitely uses the full fledged APIs and even uses OIS or the image processor to pick/merge the best frame out of the video stream (a lot of blurry photos I take are unblurred), so I’m not sure why the Android experience is allegedly so lacklustre
staticelf 9y ago
lol is this true? Proof? If this is the case that's most likely why my phone took so shitty snaps when I had android.
yojex 9y ago
Snapchat takes beautiful photos on iOS. Some people I know even prefer to use it to the native camera. I wonder why this is different for Android? Does anyone have an insight here?
- eightysixfour 9y ago
  It sure doesn’t for me, it takes the worst photos of any app I use by a long shot. It is fine for ephemeral stuff but nothing I want to save ever turns out well. (This includes from my 6S and my 8+)
  - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
    When you save, you're saving exactly what would be uploaded to Snapchat, which is downsized for bandwidth reasons. You'll especially notice this on videos.
    - qpalz 9y ago
      I'm looking at some of my saved snapchat videos on iOS and I am almost certain from the quality that there's no downsizing done here. Maybe if you send it to your story and then download it from there it'll be downsized to what exists on their server.
      - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
        Move it to a desktop and you'll notice. I saved a number of videos directly from the camera view and it's much lower resolution than the built-in camera, like 720p or lower, which I didn't (disappointingly) discover until I got home.
- zwerdlds 9y ago
  Just a hunch, but I'm guessing the call to capture a screenshot is restricted by Apple, forcing them to do it the 'correct' way.
  - 9y ago
mcny 9y ago
> And here they are, trying to add more 'features' into an app where its main feature has been inherently broken since inception. I am an Android user as well (I own a Nexus 4, 5, 6, and the 2013 wifi version of 7) and I welcome this feature. I think they will fix the Android way of doing things at some point. In fact, if I had the choice of entirely disabling the new swipe right vs a beautiful camera API experience I'd pick the former. I don't care about the Kardashians and I don't want them on my snapchat. If that means I have to live with a crappy camera, I am ok (mostly because my friends are all on iPhone and I mostly watch snaps rather than post them)
- m3rc 9y ago
  Sorry what? Why would making the app actually take photos mean you have to see the Kardashians?
  - boffinism 9y ago
    I believe the point mcny is making is that the developers chose to focus on the social/media split thing instead of the camera API thing. "Making the app actually take photos" means devoting resources to that instead of devoting them to this new feature they've announced today.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
      > the developers chose This seems unlikely. More likely scenario: the developers chose to keep their jobs and did what management told them.
ijafri 9y ago
I wonder if it has to do with pic size and bandwidth.. since they never seemed to focus on Android. Due to a lot of low end devices .. and meaning no value for advertisers ... ?? Also they ain't Instagram .. or Flickr.. it was disappearing pics ... Meant to last few seconds,.. right ?? Or I got this wrong?
- jrowley 9y ago
  They can last for 24 hours sometimes or forever in the “memories” section.
tartuffe78 9y ago
As a near daily snapchat user, and someone who has developed an Android app that use's the camera, I prefer it this way. I'm not using SnapChat to take super high quality pictures, but to share moments quickly. The WYSIWYG works well for that, and a lot of Android devices are super slow to take pictures. Dealing with Camera 1 vs Camera 2 Android APIs, and device specific issues is a mess, I don't blame them for taking the easier route. The iOS camera system is a lot easier to develop against, so I blame Android for this rather than Snapchat.
- distantsounds 9y ago
  So you prefer gimping your photo quality because you're too lazy to learn how the API works, and assume that your users are OK with this as well?
  - brianwawok 9y ago
    What kind of photo quality do you need to take a selfie to send to your BFF with cat ears drawn on?
  - jlgosse 9y ago
    I've used some pretty recent Android devices which take 1-2 seconds to focus and capture using the actual camera, so I see where he's coming from. Done > perfect when you're trying to capture something happening RIGHT now.
    - distantsounds 9y ago
      Hate to break it to you, but Snapchat still struggles to focus quickly. Probably because they're using the viewfinder's built-in lower resolution to perform the focus action, which further hampers its ability to focus on an object accurately
  - jachee 9y ago
    How often is the Venn overlap of "High Quality Photo" and "OMG Selfie!" exceedingly relevant?
stickydink 9y ago
I worked on an app that we needed to take a live video stream, run that through OpenCV, but also quickly take high-res photos while that's running. On Android I really had trouble in getting the preview stream to line up with the photographs. I needed to keep the preview resolution low enough that devices could process it and present to the screen in real time. But not all devices have the same preview and photograph resolutions. I found there were inconsistencies between the way the image was cropped (on the OS/hardware level) between different resolutions. You can take a preview stream at resolution X, and it would appear full frame. Then you would take a photograph at resolution Y, and despite being the same aspect ratio, it would be cropped differently. The results varied between devices, with some matching the crop, some vertically, some horizontally, and (as far as I could tell) there was no way to identify programmatically how the camera was doing the cropping. It seemed to be being done at a level much lower than I could access. In the end we just had to compromise on a resolution in the middle and use it for both preview and photo. It may not be the reason, and maybe there's a way around this, the project was a year or two since now. Implementing the same thing on iOS I didn't run into the issue.
econner 9y ago
My impression was that they did this because it made taking a picture faster than using the camera and they specifically did not want to encourage high quality photos. They wanted quick personal moments where you don't care so much how you look or capturing the perfect lighting or whatever.
xspade 9y ago
I always thought this was to ensure you get a photo of what you're seeing in the moment; not something after a delay which is what was happening with older phones. Essentially it's a fast and dirty way for the photos to be WYSIWYG and avoid camera lag.
kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
As much as I love to hate on Snapchat, there's probably no reason to use the Camera API for high quality pictures given Snapchat's use case. And if your nudes were going to be leaked would you rather they were blurred or high-res?
- distantsounds 9y ago
  as a social network whose main feature is taking photos, why wouldn't you want that to be in the best quality possible?
  - mynameisvlad 9y ago
    The main feature is not "taking photos", it's "capturing memories for quick sharing". The additional time it takes to focus/take the photo (which, judging by certain built in camera apps, could be seconds) makes or breaks the in the moment feel. In the end, these photos are meant to be looked at for max 10s with stickers/drawings/text superimposed. You don't need a high quality shot for that.
    - distantsounds 9y ago
      I think you are overstating the delay involved in taking a photo and having it process inside Android. Whether or not you're taking a screenshot of the viewfinder or properly processing the photo, the moment you press the shutter button is the exact moment that Android captures what the camera sees. The processing that goes inside may take a second or so (if you're using the camera API) but it's fairly negligible in the long run. Any other app on Android that properly uses the camera - whether it's a built-in camera app or something third party like Facebook, Instagram, OpenCamera, Snapseed, etc - it's not like you're waiting 15 seconds for an image to process. It's all fairly quick and seamless. The excuse of "oh it's just for quick sharing so we don't have to focus on quality" is a strawman argument that doesn't really work, because the tech is there to allow it to function both beautifully and quickly - they just don't put the resources into making it happen.
      - 9y ago
didibus 9y ago
I always liked that, because what you see is what you get, and it's much faster.
bhauer 9y ago
The apparent delight in low-quality photography that pervades both Snapchat and Instagram are among the reasons I don't bother using either. Earlier photography applications and platforms such as Flickr celebrated high-quality camera equipment and the resulting photographs. Intentional dramatic down-sampling and filters that add vintage discoloration have never resonated with my senses.
- kccqzy 9y ago
  Instagram is a very diverse place, much more so than Snapchat. If you follow the right people, you will basically only see high-quality photos (likely taken from high-end camera equipment too!), but if you just follow your “friends” et al you are gonna be disappointed.
maxfurman 9y ago
I'm fine with the picture quality (they are ephemeral after all) but I'm not fine with how the Android app is slow, clunky, battery-destroying mess. Example: If I get a plaintext chat message through snapchat, and I tap the notification to open it, do I go straight to the chat thread? No, I'm dropped at the camera, which has to start streaming and download all the new filters and god knows what else until it allows me to swipe left to get to chats, then tap the specific thread to see the new message.
- odonnellryan 9y ago
  Yeah. Android app has sucked for a while now. Can't quickly snap something interesting. What's the point?
marcusjt 9y ago
Thanks, I've done my bit in return by citing your comparison URL in my (relevantly critical) review of the app on the Play Store.
samhyde420 9y ago
My 4k screen caps sure do look damn good. Sorry your phone is trash!
rcheu 9y ago
The Android Camera API is notoriously bad, and the Camera1/Camera2 switch isn't helping either. I would guess the main reason they do the screenshot approach is that it's actually faster than asking Android to take a photo and produces a photo that exactly matches what the user expected.

therealmarv 9y ago

omg they are really doing this? A shame!

lnx01 9y ago

I cannot wrap my head around why it was even implemented like this in the first place. Were they too lazy to look up the Camera API implemetation? Was it a hacky workaround to avoid some retriction in Android?

dannyw 9y ago
It could be for a variety of reasons; 1. Compatibility with old devices or API levels 2. Performance optimisation for the filters 3. Lack of priority for the Android app On my iPhone, Snapchat definitely uses the full fledged APIs and even uses OIS or the image processor to pick/merge the best frame out of the video stream (a lot of blurry photos I take are unblurred), so I’m not sure why the Android experience is allegedly so lacklustre

staticelf 9y ago

lol is this true? Proof? If this is the case that's most likely why my phone took so shitty snaps when I had android.

yojex 9y ago

Snapchat takes beautiful photos on iOS. Some people I know even prefer to use it to the native camera. I wonder why this is different for Android? Does anyone have an insight here?

eightysixfour 9y ago
It sure doesn’t for me, it takes the worst photos of any app I use by a long shot. It is fine for ephemeral stuff but nothing I want to save ever turns out well. (This includes from my 6S and my 8+)
- jsmthrowaway 9y ago
  When you save, you're saving exactly what would be uploaded to Snapchat, which is downsized for bandwidth reasons. You'll especially notice this on videos.
  - qpalz 9y ago
    I'm looking at some of my saved snapchat videos on iOS and I am almost certain from the quality that there's no downsizing done here. Maybe if you send it to your story and then download it from there it'll be downsized to what exists on their server.
    - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
      Move it to a desktop and you'll notice. I saved a number of videos directly from the camera view and it's much lower resolution than the built-in camera, like 720p or lower, which I didn't (disappointingly) discover until I got home.
zwerdlds 9y ago
Just a hunch, but I'm guessing the call to capture a screenshot is restricted by Apple, forcing them to do it the 'correct' way.
- 9y ago

mcny 9y ago

> And here they are, trying to add more 'features' into an app where its main feature has been inherently broken since inception. I am an Android user as well (I own a Nexus 4, 5, 6, and the 2013 wifi version of 7) and I welcome this feature. I think they will fix the Android way of doing things at some point. In fact, if I had the choice of entirely disabling the new swipe right vs a beautiful camera API experience I'd pick the former. I don't care about the Kardashians and I don't want them on my snapchat. If that means I have to live with a crappy camera, I am ok (mostly because my friends are all on iPhone and I mostly watch snaps rather than post them)

m3rc 9y ago
Sorry what? Why would making the app actually take photos mean you have to see the Kardashians?
- boffinism 9y ago
  I believe the point mcny is making is that the developers chose to focus on the social/media split thing instead of the camera API thing. "Making the app actually take photos" means devoting resources to that instead of devoting them to this new feature they've announced today.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
    > the developers chose This seems unlikely. More likely scenario: the developers chose to keep their jobs and did what management told them.

ijafri 9y ago

I wonder if it has to do with pic size and bandwidth.. since they never seemed to focus on Android. Due to a lot of low end devices .. and meaning no value for advertisers ... ?? Also they ain't Instagram .. or Flickr.. it was disappearing pics ... Meant to last few seconds,.. right ?? Or I got this wrong?

jrowley 9y ago
They can last for 24 hours sometimes or forever in the “memories” section.

tartuffe78 9y ago

As a near daily snapchat user, and someone who has developed an Android app that use's the camera, I prefer it this way. I'm not using SnapChat to take super high quality pictures, but to share moments quickly. The WYSIWYG works well for that, and a lot of Android devices are super slow to take pictures. Dealing with Camera 1 vs Camera 2 Android APIs, and device specific issues is a mess, I don't blame them for taking the easier route. The iOS camera system is a lot easier to develop against, so I blame Android for this rather than Snapchat.

distantsounds 9y ago
So you prefer gimping your photo quality because you're too lazy to learn how the API works, and assume that your users are OK with this as well?
- brianwawok 9y ago
  What kind of photo quality do you need to take a selfie to send to your BFF with cat ears drawn on?
- jlgosse 9y ago
  I've used some pretty recent Android devices which take 1-2 seconds to focus and capture using the actual camera, so I see where he's coming from. Done > perfect when you're trying to capture something happening RIGHT now.
  - distantsounds 9y ago
    Hate to break it to you, but Snapchat still struggles to focus quickly. Probably because they're using the viewfinder's built-in lower resolution to perform the focus action, which further hampers its ability to focus on an object accurately
- jachee 9y ago
  How often is the Venn overlap of "High Quality Photo" and "OMG Selfie!" exceedingly relevant?

stickydink 9y ago

I worked on an app that we needed to take a live video stream, run that through OpenCV, but also quickly take high-res photos while that's running. On Android I really had trouble in getting the preview stream to line up with the photographs. I needed to keep the preview resolution low enough that devices could process it and present to the screen in real time. But not all devices have the same preview and photograph resolutions. I found there were inconsistencies between the way the image was cropped (on the OS/hardware level) between different resolutions. You can take a preview stream at resolution X, and it would appear full frame. Then you would take a photograph at resolution Y, and despite being the same aspect ratio, it would be cropped differently. The results varied between devices, with some matching the crop, some vertically, some horizontally, and (as far as I could tell) there was no way to identify programmatically how the camera was doing the cropping. It seemed to be being done at a level much lower than I could access. In the end we just had to compromise on a resolution in the middle and use it for both preview and photo. It may not be the reason, and maybe there's a way around this, the project was a year or two since now. Implementing the same thing on iOS I didn't run into the issue.

econner 9y ago

My impression was that they did this because it made taking a picture faster than using the camera and they specifically did not want to encourage high quality photos. They wanted quick personal moments where you don't care so much how you look or capturing the perfect lighting or whatever.

xspade 9y ago

I always thought this was to ensure you get a photo of what you're seeing in the moment; not something after a delay which is what was happening with older phones. Essentially it's a fast and dirty way for the photos to be WYSIWYG and avoid camera lag.

kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago

As much as I love to hate on Snapchat, there's probably no reason to use the Camera API for high quality pictures given Snapchat's use case. And if your nudes were going to be leaked would you rather they were blurred or high-res?

distantsounds 9y ago
as a social network whose main feature is taking photos, why wouldn't you want that to be in the best quality possible?
- mynameisvlad 9y ago
  The main feature is not "taking photos", it's "capturing memories for quick sharing". The additional time it takes to focus/take the photo (which, judging by certain built in camera apps, could be seconds) makes or breaks the in the moment feel. In the end, these photos are meant to be looked at for max 10s with stickers/drawings/text superimposed. You don't need a high quality shot for that.
  - distantsounds 9y ago
    I think you are overstating the delay involved in taking a photo and having it process inside Android. Whether or not you're taking a screenshot of the viewfinder or properly processing the photo, the moment you press the shutter button is the exact moment that Android captures what the camera sees. The processing that goes inside may take a second or so (if you're using the camera API) but it's fairly negligible in the long run. Any other app on Android that properly uses the camera - whether it's a built-in camera app or something third party like Facebook, Instagram, OpenCamera, Snapseed, etc - it's not like you're waiting 15 seconds for an image to process. It's all fairly quick and seamless. The excuse of "oh it's just for quick sharing so we don't have to focus on quality" is a strawman argument that doesn't really work, because the tech is there to allow it to function both beautifully and quickly - they just don't put the resources into making it happen.
    - 9y ago

didibus 9y ago

I always liked that, because what you see is what you get, and it's much faster.

bhauer 9y ago

The apparent delight in low-quality photography that pervades both Snapchat and Instagram are among the reasons I don't bother using either. Earlier photography applications and platforms such as Flickr celebrated high-quality camera equipment and the resulting photographs. Intentional dramatic down-sampling and filters that add vintage discoloration have never resonated with my senses.

kccqzy 9y ago
Instagram is a very diverse place, much more so than Snapchat. If you follow the right people, you will basically only see high-quality photos (likely taken from high-end camera equipment too!), but if you just follow your “friends” et al you are gonna be disappointed.

maxfurman 9y ago

I'm fine with the picture quality (they are ephemeral after all) but I'm not fine with how the Android app is slow, clunky, battery-destroying mess. Example: If I get a plaintext chat message through snapchat, and I tap the notification to open it, do I go straight to the chat thread? No, I'm dropped at the camera, which has to start streaming and download all the new filters and god knows what else until it allows me to swipe left to get to chats, then tap the specific thread to see the new message.

odonnellryan 9y ago
Yeah. Android app has sucked for a while now. Can't quickly snap something interesting. What's the point?

marcusjt 9y ago

Thanks, I've done my bit in return by citing your comparison URL in my (relevantly critical) review of the app on the Play Store.

samhyde420 9y ago

My 4k screen caps sure do look damn good. Sorry your phone is trash!

rcheu 9y ago

The Android Camera API is notoriously bad, and the Camera1/Camera2 switch isn't helping either. I would guess the main reason they do the screenshot approach is that it's actually faster than asking Android to take a photo and produces a photo that exactly matches what the user expected.