Use This App to Enable Pixel 3 Camera Features on Older Pixel Smartphones

Posted on October 30, 2018 by resourcefulman

Some of the most exciting new features of the Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL smartphones are their new camera features such as Night Sight (more accurate color and lighting enhancements for dark photos) and Top Shot, which helps you choose the best photo among a series of photos you’ve taken.

While Google has previously confirmed that some of the Pixel 3’s camera features will also be available in older Pixel phones, why wait? Thanks to XDA’s new cstark27 app , you can get some of these features to be released for your Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 smartphones right now.

How to download and install the CameraP3 app

First, make sure your phone is set up to install apps downloaded from your web browser, in our case Chrome. You can do this by pressing and holding the browser application icon until you see a popup dialog. Tap the “Information Icon” (it looks like an “i” inside a circle) to open the app settings.

Scroll down and tap Advanced options , find and tap the Install unknown apps option, and then turn on Allow from source if it’s not already checked. After that, you can close the settings menu and start downloading.

In your device ‘s web browser, open the CameraP3 download page , then scroll down and tap to download the file.
If you are using Chrome, you will see a pop-up asking you to download a file named “P3v5_GoogleCamera_6.1.013.apk”. Click “OK” to start downloading.
The download should take a moment. When finished, click Open if you’re using Chrome. You can also open the notifications tab and open the file by clicking on the “download complete” notification. The third option is to open your phone’s downloads folder and from there open P3v5_GoogleCamera_6.1.013.apk .
After the start of the application is installed, if it says that you are not allowed to install APK from this source, tap the option “Settings” in the pop-up window and select “Allow from source” in a new window. However, if you’ve followed the steps to allow the app to be installed from a web app, this shouldn’t be a problem.
The first time you open the app, you will need to allow it to take photos and record videos; record sound using the microphone of your phone; access to photos and media / folders, and access to location data.

Using New Camera Features in CameraP3

The CameraP3 icon looks identical to the default Android camera app icon. Don’t be fooled.

You will notice that CameraP3’s interface is also similar to the default camera app, but with some new menus and icons on the screen. All the various new settings and functions can be found here.

To find Photosphere, Slow Motion, Photo Booth, AR Stickers, and Night Sight features, navigate to More on the mode slider and tap the feature you want to open.
If your smartphone notices that you are in the dark, it also brings up a pop-up asking if you want to turn on Night Sight (although, confusingly, the app calls this “night mode”).

You can change the setting of the lens and HDR + resolution, including Google Lens offers, customized gesture commands, and much more by clicking the “Settings” tab on the “More”.
Turn HDR + on by tapping the HDR + icon in the left center of the app window in Camera mode .
In Camera mode , you can also change the motion mode settings by tapping the center icon at the top of the screen and then selecting the desired mode (Off, On, or Auto).
In Portrait mode , you can switch between face retouching presets by clicking the icons at the top of the application window.