Mishal Rahman/Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is working on a built-in camera shortcut for the Android photo picker, as seen in the latest Android 17 QPR1 beta 2.
- This also reduces UI fragmentation by eliminating the need for app developers to create separate camera entry points if they are already using the photo picker.
- Photo Picker now allows users to delete their search history, and the feature is already live in beta.
Android’s photo picker was designed to make sharing media more secure and streamlined, but it has long suffered from one glaring omission: You can’t actually take a photo from within the interface. This limitation has led to a fragmented user experience throughout the ecosystem, as app developers have had to implement their own camera entry points. However, evidence found in the latest Android 17 QPR1 beta 2 suggests that Google is finally ready to bridge this gap with a built-in camera shortcut.
photo picker is an Android system component that provides a browsable interface for accessing media library content in third-party apps. Apps can use the library to toggle the photo picker, saving them the effort of building this interface themselves. For users, Photo Picker provides a secure, built-in way to give 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 some cloud media providers.
Photo picker may 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 media already stored locally or in the cloud, but can’t click new photos. Because of this limitation, apps that require this functionality tend to bake in a separate mechanism (usually a button or similar entry point outside the photo picker) for clicking a new photo.
For example, look at the options in the “Insert” menu of Gmail and Keep. Both apps had to add a dedicated entry point for the camera, even though both also include a photo picker.
Since apps make this decision independently, the result is fragmented UX. Note how the order of the buttons differs in the two apps – it’s a small decision, but one that impacts the UX experience on the Android platform, given how this fragmented UX exists in apps from Google and third-party developers.
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It appears that Google is planning to address this fragmentation by eventually integrating the camera option directly into the photo picker. We’ve found strings in Android 17 QPR 1 beta 2 that suggest the photo picker may include a camera option:
Some strings also indicate whether the camera entry point can be hidden or shown depending 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 moves forward with this change, it will eventually eliminate the need for in-app camera shortcuts and provide a consistent user experience across all 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 a search query entry to delete it.
assembledebug/androidauthority
This change is already live in the update.
⚠️ One tearing apk Helps to predict future features of a service based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to the public release.
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