The latest Pixel 9.5 camera app unlocks manual Astrophotography mode, here's how to do it

Pixel 9 cameras are a treat if you are a photographer or anyone who enjoys capturing photos. These phones offer multiple AI trickery that elevates the photo and video capturing experience on a smartphone. Recently, someone extracted the Pixel 9 camera app and uploaded it to the third-party app store APK Mirror.

The Pixel Camera v9.5 unlocked a few new features for older Pixel models. For starters, there is a new 5-second timer preset now available, which joins the existing 3-second and 10-second timer presets. Moreover, users using the Pixel Camera app v9.5 will be able to enable Guided Frames from the camera app's settings, negating the need to go into the device's accessibility settings to activate the feature.

Now, according to the Google News Telegram channel, the Pixel Camera app version 9.5.118 has also unlocked an important feature: users can now manually activate Astrophotography Mode.

Google Pixel phones were the first ones to offer the Astrophotography Mode, which enables you to take high-quality images of the night sky. However, the downside was that this feature couldn't be manually enabled. Thankfully, that is changing with the new version of the Pixel Camera app.

Please note that this Pixel camera app update is not yet available on the Google Play Store, but you can grab it from APK Mirror. After you have installed the new camera app on your Pixel phone, here's how you can manually enable the Astrophotography Mode:

1. Open the Camera app.
2. Swipe to select the Night Sight mode.
3. Tap the duration icon and then adjust the slider from "Auto" to the new "Astro" option, which is available to the right of "Max."
4. You will have a 5-second timer before the Astrophotography Mode kicks in and starts capturing the image.

The 5-second timer can be adjusted to 3-second, or 10-second, or even be disabled by heading over the Night Sight settings page. You can still use the old method to activate Astrophotography Mode, i.e., by launching Night Sight mode, placing your camera on a stable surface, and waiting for your phone to display a start icon.