Google Camera 8.6: Android 13, extended Pixel 6 voice improvement [U: New update]

Google is rolling out an update to the Pixel Camera app a month after the last release, with version 8.6 introducing a handful of Material You changes and speech improvements for the Pixel 6 rear camera.

Update 10/26: Google is widely rolling out a minor Camera 8.6 update this afternoon with version 8.6.263.478604508.17 for Pixel 6 Pro and earlier. We haven’t encountered any user-related changes and this is likely just a bug fix.

It comes as version 8.7 remains exclusive to the Pixel 7 series with a handful of user-facing changes regardless of the new camera hardware. Highlights include the return of Frequent Faces, the removal of the Google Lens shortcut, a new location for the Lock folder, and various icon tweaks. Google Camera 8.7 could be coming to older Pixel phones with the removal of December features and Android 13 QPR1.

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Update 9/2: Google Camera version 8.6.263.471358013.15 was widely released Friday afternoon as a small patch. There is no apparent change on the phone.

The corresponding Wear OS update (8.6.263.471358013.15) is a bug fix after the initial update last month. The camera preview on the watch looks higher resolution, while various buttons no longer have graphical errors.

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Update 8/25: Another change in Google Camera 8.6 sees the default wide/zoom out increment change from 0.6 to 0.7x in the pill-shaped picker above the shutter button. We’ve seen this change on the Pixel 6a (114° FOV, 12MP) and 5a (117° FOV, 16MP), while it’s likely also seen on the 5 and 4a 5G.

You can pinch to get 0.6x back, while the difference isn’t that big. This matches the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro which have been 0.7 (only) since launch.

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Update 8/18: A new version of Google Camera 8.6 is widely deployed today: 8.6.263.461063035.12 at 8.6.263.463689965.13.

This is most likely a minor update, but it should see wider availability with the launch of Android 13 on Monday. Camera 8.6 has not been rolled out to Pixel phones running Android 12 or earlier.

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Update 7/28: Google Camera 8.6 on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro (on which we’ve since gotten the update) enables “speech enhancement” for the rear camera.

At launch, this feature was only for recording videos with the front camera and helped reduce unwanted noise such as “wind, traffic and crowds”. It is now available on the rear camera for 1080p (FHD) capture at 30FPS.

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Original 7/27: The main visual change today is to the “Modes” tab at the end of the carousel. Buttons for Panorama, Photo Sphere and Lens are now placed in a rounded rectangular container instead of being directly overlaid on the live preview.

Along with that Material You case, those access points have also been moved to the bottom of the screen for easier accessibility, especially if your thumb is located to press the shutter button.

Finally, the buttons are now themed with Dynamic Color, like other key UI elements (e.g. mode dial and locked folder shortcut), instead of just being black on a white background.

Camera 8.5 versus 8.6

We received Google Camera 8.6 on a Pixel 4a (running Android 13) this afternoon, but the new update isn’t widely rolling out through the Play Store yet.

The last gap between updates was just over (version 8.4) two months (8.5), so this release is definitely coming sooner than expected. It probably contains bugfixes as well, but frequent faces are still disabled as far as we can tell.

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