Google takes away wide-angle astrophotography from Pixel phones

According to The Verge, the feature was a selling point of the Pixel 4 and was available on the regular and telephoto cameras.

Washington: Google Pixel 5 and 4a 5G users can no longer use their ultra-wide cameras to take pictures of the stars. The company apparently removed the lens’s astrophotography capabilities with the Google Camera 8.1 update.

According to The Verge, the feature was a selling point of the Pixel 4 and was available on the regular and telephoto cameras. When the 4a 5G and 5 were announced with new wide-angle lenses, the feature was added to those as well. Now it’s been taken away.

On Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5, astrophotography only works on zoom settings equal to or greater than 1x.The astrophotography feature lets users capture the night sky by pointing their phone up and keeping it still, either by balancing it on a nearby object or putting it on a tripod.

The feature is still available on the phones’ other cameras, but if you go to Night Sight mode and switch to the ultra-wide-angle camera a user will now get a warning saying “Zoom to 1x for astrophotography.” Before the update, it would say “Astrophotography on.” As per The Verge, Google didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for comment asking why it had made the change.