[APK Teardown] New Nokia camera app could bring new features like Gesture Shot, Super zoom, night mode and more

During MWC 2019, you might have noticed that Nokia 3.2 and Nokia 4.2 have a different camera app. It's worth noting that these two phones are made by WingTech and do not have any of the notorious Evenwell apps. We were able to get the new camera app (version: 95.9.0100.03) from the Nokia 3.2 and found some interesting things to share. Let's get started! 

Note: We can't guarantee that all of these features will be released.

1. New Package name:

The new camera app has a different package name, com.hmdglobal.app.camera as opposed to com.hmdglobal.camera2. This means we could install the new app alongside the old one. When we installed it on our Nokia 7 plus, we noticed that some libs were missing and the camera force closed.  

2. Video recording at 1080p 60 fps:

The strings "KEY_USE_60FPS" and "QUALITY_1080P_60FPS" indicate that we might be able to record at 60 fps in supported devices.

3. More Countdown timers:

Currently, the duration of the countdown is limited to 3 seconds and 10 seconds. There are new values of 2 seconds and 5 seconds which we found in the apk. 10 seconds was way too long and adding more values in between is definitely a big welcome. 

4. Gesture shot:

Finding it difficult to take selfies? HMD has a new gesture for you. "To take a picture, show the palm of your hand in front of the camera." The below image will give you a better picture (pun intended :p)

5. Help tips:

When the user opens the camera for the first time, a pop-up asks whether they would like to take a tour and get help-tips to use their new smartphone camera. Here are some of those tips:

1. To take a picture, show the palm of your hand in front of the camera.
2. Touch an icon to change the manual mode option.
3. Touch to show or hide manual mode options
4. Swipe left or right on the viewfinder to change the camera mode.
5. Take a tour and get help tips on how to use your new smartphone's camera, and many more can be found in the screenshot below:

 

6. Night mode:

A few days back, Nokia Anew tweeted that HMD is working on a night mode for Nokia phones. We were also able to find some references related to it like "Take a picture in low light mode", "Night mode on, hold device steady while capturing", "Low light off", "Low light on". There is also an entry in the settings page of the camera app which emphasises the same. The disabled and enabled state of the icon is shown below:

7. TiZR live streaming:

TiZR allows users to share life moments with the world in real time. String reference in the camera app is "TiZR lets you broadcast live video to the world. Start your journey now". More info about TiZR can be found in this article. 

8. Super Zoom:

The string, "Super zoom on, hold the device steady while taking pictures"  was the only string reference we could find, so we are unclear of what superzoom does. Could this be a new feature that will be introduced with an upcoming flagship smartphone with zoom capabilities?

9. Boom key/Camera key:

We are unclear what "boom key" actually is (The link shows how "boom key" is used on an Alcatel Idol 4 but it is highly unlikely this will be the same implementation on a Nokia). This could be a separate camera button, as referred by the string, "Use the Camera key to take photos or long press for burst shot". It might end up being just the volume keys or some dedicated hardware key which could be mapped to do certain things.

10. Kid sound effect:

    

There are sounds of a cat, harp, sheep, train and laser which play when their respective icons are clicked. playKidSound is the function which calls them, so we guess it's for entertaining the kids. Here are those amusing sounds:

Miscellaneous:

           

HMD uses Morpho's Panorama GP for its camera. HDR plus is still mentioned but none of the released devices uses it. There are some random images like a bear, deer, pineapple, balloons, star and more which could be for the Animojis. On the flip side, OZO audio is not here. This could be because of the fact that Nokia 3.2 doesn't have it.

The camera apk decompiled by us can be found here.