Android

[Update: ‘No reason not to’] Google thinks it’s ‘infeasible’ to natively add scrolling screenshots to Android

Ben Schoon | May 9 2019 - 7:45 pm PT

Especially in recent years, a lot of the new features being added natively to Android have shown up first by way of OEMs. One great tool that’s been adopted by many is the ability to take a scrolling screenshot on Android. Sadly, though, Google thinks it’s “infeasible” to bring this into Android as an OS.

Over the past month, Google has commented on two different bug tracker feature requests regarding adding scrolling screenshots to Android. In both cases, as noticed by Android Police, the company has stated that it won’t be working on bringing this to Android, saying that it is “infeasible,” in one case saying they are “not able” to work on it.

In case you’re unfamiliar with this feature, it’s shown up on several different products, most notably Samsung’s devices. After taking a screenshot, a pop-up generally allows users to scroll down on their screen to take another screenshot, with the software automatically stitching the two together. It’s a useful tool for sharing more of what’s on your display than can be seen, and therefore captured, at once.

For whatever reason, though, Google seems to think this is something it can’t natively adopt in Android as an operating system. My sole theory to why this would be the case is because of how screenshots are taken in “stock” Android. Instead of having a prompt appear on the screen, Google has opted to defer those actions to the notification tray. To that end, it would be slightly difficult to implement a scrolling screenshot in Google’s version of Android.

Scrolling screenshots weren’t exactly expected to arrive in any imminent version of Android, such as Q, but it’s a bit disappointing to see Google simply shoot it down entirely.

Update 5/9: At Google I/O 2019 during a Fireside chat, the Android team confirmed that this indeed possible. David Burke said that it was a “good idea” and that there is “no reason not to do it. Another member of the Android team further explained that it’s just something that has to “prioritized” and “fit in along with everything else.” So basically, this might be coming after all.