A good chunk of the Pixel series' camera prowess comes from the underlying Google Camera app. The application has successfully bettered Stock camera application on a host of devices to deliver higher-quality images. It is a part of the reason why there is a vibrant developer community dedicated to porting it to as many devices as possible. Now, Google has released a lightweight version of the app called Google Camera Go.
As the name suggests, the application is intended for devices running Google's lightweight Android distribution- Android Go. The software is custom-designed to operate on low-powered devices with lesser than 1GB of RAM and older processors. A lot of sub-$200 devices run the Android fork, about 100 million, to be precise. Google Camera Go offers a highly-sought-after feature in the form of Portrait Mode to low-cost devices. According to Google's blog post:
The new Camera Go app from Google helps you take beautiful photos without worrying about speed or storage. It has features like Portrait Mode to give your photos a professional look by focusing on your subject. It’s built for people using smartphones for the first time, so it has a clean and simple interface.
Other than Portrait Mode, Google Camer aGo also comes with other Google Camera functionalities such as Google Lens integration. The app also tracks how much storage space you have left, helping you declutter or back up images to Google Photos. This feature, in particular, is essential as many phones that run Android Go come with a limited amount of internal storage. Here's a sample of what the Portrait mode can do.
Google Camera Go joins the long list of Android Go-ready apps. We already have Google Search Go, Maps Go, YouTube Go, and a host of other Google services toned-down for Android Go phones. Even companies like Facebook and Spotify have released 'Lite' versions of their apps for low-powered phones.
