Google indefinitely takes wide-angle astrophotography from pixel phones

Pixel 5 and 4A 5G users will no longer be able to use their ultra-wide cameras to take pictures of stars: Google has apparently removed the lens’ astrophotography capabilities with the Google Camera 8.1 update. The feature was the Pixel 4’s sales center, and was available on regular and telephoto cameras. When the 4A was announced with the new wide angle lens of 5G and 5, the feature was also added. Now it has been stripped.

The astrophotography feature allows users to capture the night sky by pointing their phone and keeping it stationary, either by adjusting it to a nearby object object or placing it on a tripod. The feature is still available on the phone’s other cameras, but if you switch to night site mode and switch to an ultra-wide angle camera, you’ll now get the warning “Zoom to 1x for astrophotography.” Before the update it will say “Astrophotography on.”

Google made a change asking why it responded to our request for comment, but updated its low light photography support document to add the following warning:

Important: On Pixel 4A (5G) and Pixel 5, astrophotography only works at zoom settings equal to or greater than 1x.

Looking at the webback machine, we can see that this change took place sometime between November 1st and November 7th. It has been given a little strange time that the update was not published a few days later.

For a description of why the feature has been cut, you can check out this thread on Google’s Pixel Phone Help Forum. It has examples from two users, showing the results generated on the Pixel 5’s regular camera astrophotography mode, compared to the one that puts out an ultra-wide lens. I will judge the pictures for you. The forum post, however, is another part of the time oddity – it was created a few days after the feature was removed, the feature had already started.

Given that the update took place a month ago, after most people began to consider that the feature had actually been removed, it may become clear why Google thinks it could be removed without mentioning it in the changelog. Even if that feature isn’t missed by many, it’s still a reminder that software used to advertise the phone may be subject to change (like the unlimited original quality pixel collection in Google Photos).