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GOOGLE IS ENHANCING AR PERFORMANCE ON ANDROID PHONES WITH DUAL CAMERAS!

Google is updating its augmented reality SDK so that phones with dual cameras can capture better depth information. As noted by Android Police, the foremost recent update to the Google Play Services for AR app, which is how Google allocates ARCore features, now notes “Dual camera stereo depth on supported devices” in its changelog.

For now, it seems that the support will be limited to Google’s own Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, which were both out in 2019. The list of well-matched ARCore devices on Google’s developer site says that dual-camera support will roll out in the coming weeks.

Notably, this proposes that the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, both of which are 2020 Pixel phones with dual cameras, will not see the advantages for now. That may be because their secondary cameras are ultra wides rather than the Pixel 4 and 4 XL’s telephotos, which would have insinuations for how they could manufacture more detailed depth maps.

In any case, it’s another consequence of Google’s indecisiveness on Pixel camera lenses. The company long insisted that it only required one camera thanks to computational features like Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 3, then puzzlingly added a zoom lens on the Pixel 4 anyway, then took a u-turn and swapped it out for an ultrawide on the Pixel 5.

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