Your Google Pixel phone just got a great free camera upgrade

The Pixel Camera app has a new update that enables you to manually enable its Astrophotography mode. You'll literally see stars.

One of the great features in the Pixel Camera app can also be a little frustrating. It's the Astrophotography mode, which enables you to capture stunning shots of the night sky. But while it's clever, it's also a little unpredictable because you can't select it manually. That's about to change as the Pixel Camera gets another great free upgrade.

At the moment, to turn on Astrophotography mode your Pixel needs to be sat on a solid surface and pointed up at the night sky; switching to Night Sky in the app should then engage Astrophotography mode. But like all automatic modes in camera apps, just because it should do something doesn't necessarily mean it always will. So there's a new manual mode that'll ensure you get the mode you need when you want it.

How the new manual mode works in the Pixel Camera

According to screenshots shared on the Google News Telegram channel, as reported by Android Police , irrespective of how you're holding your phone you'll now get a new pop-up when you select Night Sight (provided Astrophotography is enabled in Night Sight's quick settings).

When you switch to Night Sight you'll see the moon-and-star Astrophotography icon towards the bottom right of the screen. Tap on that and you'll see three options: about, which tells you more about the feature, manual, which is the new manual mode, and the existing auto mode.

In manual mode the on-screen instructions are clear enough: select Astro, tap the shutter to start the five second timer, and then place the phone somewhere stable. You can adjust the timeframe to suit: Android Police says that the mode length can be as long as four minutes, with your Pixel taking 16 pictures with a sixteen-second exposure each time and then stitching them together to create a single image. How quickly that stitching happens will depend on how recent and powerful your Pixel phone is; it's quite demanding.

The new feature should be rolling out in the Pixel Camera app imminently, or if you're in a hurry you can sideload the new app via APKMirror.