On this week's episode, we break down how camera APIs work in Android and why third-party camera apps just can't match the features and quality produced by the stock camera. Long story short, it's a mess. What gives? And what's being done about it?

We're joined by Mohit Shetty, a developer behind Secure Camera, the camera app on GrapheneOS and available to everyone on the Play Store.

• 01:48 - How does hardware fragmentation make camera app development on Android inherently more challenging than on iOS?
• 03:52 - Was there anything Google could have done in the early days to make things better?
• 08:21 - Why don't OEMs bother with making sure third-party camera apps work the same as the stock camera app?
• 12:27 - What are some features that OEMs can't expose to third-party camera apps through Android's camera API?
• 17:20 - How does Android's camera architecture work? What is Camera HAL 3?
• 20:23 - How will Google Requirements Freeze (GRF) affect camera HAL versioning?
• 24:11 - How do third-party camera apps interface with multiple cameras?
• 29:28 - What is the Camera2 API?
• 32:52 - What is CameraX and what can (and can't) it do?

Android Bytes is hosted by Mishaal Rahman, Senior Technical Editor, and David Ruddock, Editor in Chief, of Esper.

• Mishaal's Twitter
• David's Twitter

Esper enables next-gen device management for company-owned and managed tablets, kiosks, smart phones, IoT edge devices, and more.

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Our music is "19" by HOME and is licensed under CC BY 3.0.