Google Camera prepares to add an augmented reality measuring mode

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Over the weekend, a new version of the Google Camera app started to roll out to Google Pixel users. Version 6.2 of the app notably added a dark mode in the camera app’s settings page, but not much else was added. However, we spotted strings that hinted at a new camera mode called “Measure.” We believed this meant that Google will be integrating their augmented reality measuring app called “Measure” into Google Camera, and that indeed does look to be the case.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by Google in a future build.

Google Camera 6.2 Hints at Measure Mode

These two new strings suggest that a “Measure mode” will be added to the Google Pixel’s stock camera app:

<string name="mode_measure">Measure</string> <string name="mode_measure_desc">Switch to Measure mode</string>

XDA Senior Member cstark27, a developer who works on Google Camera mods, managed to get the new Measure mode to show up in the “More” tab in the app (see the featured image above). The icon for the new mode matches the launcher icon for Google’s Measure app, hinting that the new mode is indeed related to the augmented reality size measuring app. Attempting to launch the mode causes the app to crash with the following logcat output:

04-03 08:56:16.088 29466 29466 E AndroidRuntime: android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: Unable to find explicit activity class {com.google.vr.apps.ornament.measure/com.google.vr.apps.ornament.meas ure.MeasureMainActivity}; have you declared this activity in your AndroidManifest.xml?

The reason for this crash is because we’re missing an app with the package name com.google.vr.apps.ornament.measure. No such app currently exists on Google Play because Google hasn’t launched it yet. Notably, the first part of this package name, “com.google.vr.apps.ornament,” matches the package name for Playground (formerly known as AR Stickers). Thus, I’m assuming that Google will relaunch the Measure app as an add-on to Playground. Playground and Google Camera officially support only the Google Pixel smartphones, so don’t expect to see the new Measure mode appear on any smartphones from other device makers. However, unofficial ports of the Google Camera and Playground apps may let you use this Measure mode on ARCore-supported devices.

Once the new Measure mode launches, we’ll let you all know. For those of you who are curious about how it works, here’s a video demonstration from Google.

Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.