Google Camera update might add the ability to capture the night sky in time-lapse

• Google Camera app is expected to receive an update that lets you capture the night sky in motion.
  
• An unreleased version of the app shows a feature named astro time-lapse.
  
• The feature is expected to debut on June 7 alongside a monthly security patch.

Google might soon introduce a new camera feature called Astro time-lapse, which could allow users to capture the night sky in motion. The new feature is expected to drop on June 7 alongside the June 2021 security patch update.

The expected astro time-lapse feature was spotted by folks at XDA Developers after Google released a new update on the Pixel Tips app, an app that has tutorials about new Pixel features. The report says that Google may release its Pixel Feature Drop update on June 7 with a major camera update.

The feature was spotted by XDA on decompiling an unreleased version of the Pixel Tips app. If you install the Google Camera app version 8.2.3 or higher (the latest publically available is 8.2.204), then you should see the "CameraAstroTimelapse" tip in the Pixel Tips app. Going by the name, the feature should let you capture the night sky in time-lapse. The Google Camera app will likely be able to take an astrophotography shot after a specific time for a couple of hours to capture a time-lapse (a moving shot in fast motion) of stars moving. As for now, the Google Camera app only lets you capture a single picture of the night sky allowing a maximum of 4 minutes of exposure.

Mobile phone cameras have time-lapse for quite some time now, and astrophotography has also caught up in recent years on high-end phones. Having a combination of both will be a welcome feature to have as photographers had to rely on professional cameras and editing software to capture the night sky in motion.

Note that the APK teardown can give a hint about which features to expect, but it is possible that the feature might not be available on the final built that’s released for the public. Since the decompilation is done on an unreleased version, it is possible that the company might pull the feature in the final build.

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