Google is updating its augmented reality SDK so that phones with dual cameras can capture better depth information.
For now, it appears that the support will be limited to Google’s own Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, which were both released in 2019. The
Notably, this means that the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, both of which are 2020 Pixel phones with dual cameras, won’t see the benefits for now. That may be because their secondary cameras are ultrawides rather than the Pixel 4 and 4 XL’s telephotos, which would have implications for how they could produce more detailed depth maps.
In any case, it’s another consequence of Google’s indecision on Pixel camera lenses. The company long insisted that it only needed a single camera due to computational features like