Google's Pixel 2 Camera App gets ported to original Pixel and Pixel XL

The Google Pixel 2 was recently said to have the best smartphone camera currently available, according to DxOMark. While there are questions to be asked about DxOMark’s scoring system, few are debating that Google has made great strides recently in the realm of photography.

The Google Pixel 2, like the original Pixel, is expected to once again provide superior camera quality, and for those who want to get a slice of that action right now, XDA Developers has the goods.

Like the Google Pixel 2’s launcher that we reported on earlier today, the guys over at XDA have managed to extract the new Pixel Camera APK for those with the original Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL (running Android 8.0 Oreo or above) to install.

The new camera app delivers a handful of interface changes, as well as a Motion Photos and Face Retouching; however, which of these you will find functioning in the app is hard to say.

It’s said that the more advanced features like AR Stickers, Motion Photos, and Face Retouching may not be there — and Portrait Mode is ruled out on account of it requiring a dual camera sensor — but availability seems to be dependent on the device and the APK version installed (there’s more than one out there).

We tested it on a Google Pixel ourselves and found that, while the AR Stickers and Motion Photos didn’t work, Face Retouching and the exposure lock were functional.

If you want to try this for yourself, you can head to XDA here and download the APK — it doesn’t require root permissions.