Google is set to remove a key feature in android phones which will affect millions of smartphone users globally.
In a recent report by Android Police, the next version of the world’s most common mobile operating system will prevent apps from using third-party camera software to take photos rather user’s will have to resort to using the phone’s default built-in camera app.
The current version of Android allows other apps to display a pop-up camera picker from which the user can select their preferred camera app. This option will not be available in the new Android 11.
This simply means that users who have installed camera apps such as VSCO, Adobe Lightroom or A Better Camera, will no longer be needing these apps as they only have the option of their phone’s built-in camera only.
However, users can still use any camera app they wish by launching it directly except that the camera picker option will be affected.
This new development is to prevent apps from picking up your location without your permission. Currently, apps which have been denied access to your location data can still bypass this restriction when using third-party camera apps. The problem associated with these third-party cameras is that the location data of the user is usually embedded within their image files hence, the new restriction prevents this information from returning to the calling app along with the photo.
Although this new restriction will help protect the privacy of users, some tech experts have argued that the current solution is like an “unnecessary inconvenience” which doesn’t solve the problem entirely. Disabling the camera picker does not necessarily prevent images with the user’s location data from being uploaded from the photo gallery.
Android users will obviously not find this new development convenient when they update to the new version of Android. Hopefully, a more convenient solution will come about sooner rather than later in order for advanced users to enable them to pick a camera of their choice.
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
