Google Camera App's Night Sight Mode Now Rolling Out to Pixel 3, Pixel 2, and Pixel Smartphones

Google's most awaited camera feature - Night Sight - is finally rolling out to the Pixel 3, Pixel 2 and Pixel smartphones. The feature - which helps reduce noise as well brighten up photos shot in low-light conditions - is now available in the Google Camera app, after an update. If you own a Pixel smartphone, then simply head to the Goole Play store and look for an update for the Camera app. The Google Camera app unfortunately is no longer compatible with phones outside of Google's own range of devices.

The new feature promises much better low-light photographs by using a combination of computational photography and machine learning. Google first showcased this feature during the launch event of the Pixel 3 smartphone in New York, in October. One of the presenters showed off a comparison of a low-light scene, one shot on the iPhone XS and the other with the Pixel 3 (Review) and the difference was huge. While the authenticity of that comparison left everyone a bit doubtful, after using it ourselves, we can safely say that Night Sight does indeed work as advertised.

Google Night Sight Is Here to Change Low-Light Photos: What You Need to Know

Late last month, a prolific user from XDA Developer forum managed to get their hands on a version of the Google Camera app and modified it to work on all Pixel phones. We initially tested it out in our camera comparison of the Pixel 3 XL, Apple iPhone XS and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (Review) and the final version doesn't seem to be any different from that one. 

We've done a separate article talking about how Night Sight works and what kind of results you can expect, so don't forget to check that out here.

If you're disappointed that Google has only released this for Pixel phones, then don't be. Only recently, XDA Developers reports that a Google Camera port with Night Sight mode has now been developed for the Poco F1 (Review) and Mi 8 devices. The port is designed to work on Android Pie ROMs as well as MIUI Android Pie Beta ROMs. There are also features such as ZSL HDR+, HDR+ Enhanced, portrait mode, and up to 4K video recording support at 30fps frame rate.

Earlier this month, XDA Developer reported that developer Arnova8G2 managed to bring Night Sight mode to the OnePlus 6 (Review) and OnePlus 6T (Review) too. OnePlus also released their own low-light shooting mode called Nightscape with the OnePlus 6T but when compared to Google's Night Sight, the latter is said to offer much better noise reduction and improves dynamic range quite a bit at night.

Is Google Pixel's Night Sight the future of low-light photography?? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.