Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is working on a built-in camera shortcut for the Android Photo picker, as spotted in the latest Android 17 QPR1 Beta 2.
- The addition could reduce UI fragmentation by eliminating the need for app developers to build separate camera entry points if they are already using the Photo picker.
- The Photo picker now allows users to delete their search history, and this feature is already live in the beta.
Android’s Photo picker was designed to make sharing media more secure and streamlined, but it has long suffered from a glaring omission: you couldn’t actually take a photo from within the interface. This limitation has led to a fragmented user experience across the ecosystem, as app developers had to implement their own camera entry points. However, evidence found in the latest Android 17 QPR1 Beta 2 suggests Google is finally ready to bridge this gap with a built-in camera shortcut.
The Photo picker is an Android system component that provides a browsable interface for accessing media library content in third-party apps. Apps can use a library to invoke the Photo picker, saving them the effort of building this interface themselves. For users, the Photo picker provides a safe, built-in way to grant apps access to only selected images and videos, instead of sharing access to their entire media library. The Photo picker shows media sorted by date from newest to oldest, and recent versions can also display media from certain cloud media providers.
Photo picker could soon get a dedicated, in-built camera shortcut
Currently, the Photo picker lacks a direct shortcut to launch the device’s camera. You can only choose from the media already stored locally or in the cloud, but not click a new photo. Because of this limitation, apps that need this functionality end up baking in a separate mechanism (usually a button or similar entry point outside the Photo picker) to click a new photo.
For example, check out the options in Gmail’s and Keep’s “Insert” menu. Both apps had to add a dedicated entry point for the camera, even though both also incorporate the Photo picker.
Because apps make this decision independently, the resulting UX is fragmented. Notice how the button order is different across the two apps — it’s a small decision, but one that affects the UX experience across the Android platform, given that this fragmented UX exists across apps from Google and third-party developers.
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It appears that Google finally plans to address this fragmentation by integrating a camera option directly into the Photo picker. We’ve found strings in Android 17 QPR 1 Beta 2 that suggest the Photo picker could include a camera option:
Some strings also indicate that the camera entry point could be hidden or shown based on different conditions:
Code
Profile is eligible to show camera
Hide camera entry point because the device is not eligible for the feature
Hide camera entry point because the device does not have an eligible cameraIf Google does go ahead with this change, it would ultimately eliminate the need for in-app camera shortcuts and provide a consistent user experience across apps.
Photo picker now lets you delete searches
In Android 17 QPR1 Beta 2, the Photo picker now allows deleting searches. You can long-press on a search query entry to delete it.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
This change is already live within the update.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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