Someone forced Pixel 8 Pro's special camera features to run on Pixel 7 Pro

One way the Pixel 8 Pro differentiates itself from its cheaper sibling is by packing some special camera features out-of-the-box. However, it's something that's hard to digest for many as both Google smartphones are powered by the Tensor G3 SoC and come with seven years of software updates.

In case you are wondering if other Pixel devices might support Pixel 8 Pro's exclusive camera features, here is some tea. Tipster Kamila Wojciechowska, who previously leaked several Pixel 8 features, made a series of posts on X claiming that she was able to run Pixel 8 Pro's exclusive camera features on a Pixel 7 Pro.

The leaker said that she was able to get hold of the Google Camera APK from Pixel 8. She then "modded it to force-enable the feature" on her Pixel 7 Pro, noting that it "fully works on any Tensor Pixel, from the 6 to the 7 Pro."

Kamila demonstrated various Pixel 8 Pro camera features such as manual focus with focus peaking, switching between lenses, changing shutter speed and ISO, etc. For reference, focus peaking is a new feature that uses highlighted lines to indicate what's in focus before you take a photo.

As per the tipster, the camera UI lets you set the shutter speed as high as 16s without Night Sight on a Pixel 8 Pro. But her Pixel 7 Pro was only able to support shutter speeds up to 8s. She said you can control both the shutter speed and ISO manually or choose to tweak one of them while the other option remains automatic.

Nonetheless, it's not the case that the Pixel 8 is missing out on everything. Google has added features like Zoom Enhance, improved Magic Eraser, Audio Magic Eraser, and Best Take, which will be coming on both Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro on October 12.