Android 17 will let apps get the best out of your phone’s camera chops

Android 17 is shaping up to be quite an important update, especially if you care about camera quality across apps. Google is introducing a new way for phone makers to extend their custom camera features system-wide, which could finally close the gap between stock camera apps and third-party ones.

How is Android changing camera access for apps?

Up until now, Android has offered a limited set of standard camera extensions like HDR and Night mode to third-party apps. While useful, they barely scratch the surface of what modern smartphone cameras can actually do.

With Android 17 Beta 3, Google has introduced new vendor-defined camera extensions that will allow smartphone manufacturers to make their advanced camera features available to other apps. This means features like Super Resolution or other AI-powered enhancements will be accessible beyond the default camera app.

Google notes that third-party app developers will be able to query whether a device supports these vendor-defined extensions and use them if available. In effect, this creates a more standardized way for hardware-specific camera features to work across the Android ecosystem, instead of being restricted to each brand’s camera app.

Why does this matter for you?

If widely adopted, this change could significantly improve camera quality in third-party apps like Instagram or Snapchat, which have historically lagged behind native camera apps on Android. Instead of relying on basic camera access, these apps could tap into the same processing pipeline used by the phone’s stock camera app.

This will not only give users access to more features but could also result in better HDR, improved low-light shots, and more consistent image quality across apps. However, there’s a catch. Availability will depend on both phone makers enabling these extensions and app developers choosing to support them. So while the feature has strong potential, its real-world impact will depend on how quickly the wider ecosystem adopts it.