Pixel 4’s secondary camera could be a telephoto sensor, reveals Google Camera app

After Google dropped an official render image of its upcoming Pixel 4  lineup, showing the dual-camera system on the rear, everyone’s been speculating what the secondary sensor could be. Whether it’s an ultra-wide sensor or a telephoto sensor, it has since been a topic of debate. However, it seems like it could be bending towards the latter, thanks to a new report.

Google had started rolling out public betas for Android Q some time back and many users have been receiving the latest OTA updates. One of the updates including an updated version of the Google Camera app, version 6.3, that introduces a few UI changes such as bringing Night Sight to the main UI.

On close examination of the app, XDA Developers found “telephoto” mentioned in the code. Another change spotted was Google Camera sensor IDs that labelled all the sensors. It includes “front IR”, “front regular”, “front wide”, “rear regular”, and “rear telephoto”. These extra lines of code aren’t present on version 6.2 of the Google Camera app as confirmed by XDA.

Going by the code, it indicates that the app will now support a telephoto sensor and since the Google Camera app is primarily developed for Pixel phones, it’s safe to assume that the Pixel 4’s secondary camera is, in fact, a telephoto shooter. Another interesting thing to mention is the front IR sensor that could possibly mean the infrared sensor could be used for facial recognition. There’s no fingerprint reader on the rear, so it could either completely rely on Face Unlock or house an in-display fingerprint reader.

Google will announce the Pixel 4 lineup officially at its own event that’s usually scheduled in the month of October.