Galaxy S10 update brings ultra-wide camera support to some 3rd-party apps

Ben Schoon | Jun 3 2019 - 1:26 pm PT

After years of LG being the only company doing it, Samsung adopted an ultra-wide camera on the Galaxy S10 this year. Now, the May security update for the Galaxy S10 is opening up support for the ultra-wide camera to 3rd-party apps.

Noted by SamMobile, the latest Galaxy S10 update brings along the “ultra-wide SDK” for app developers. This allows 3rd-party apps to add a switch to use the ultra-wide camera on the S10 directly from the app. This means that users won’t have to use the official camera app first to take an ultra-wide shot to share it in a 3rd-party app.

This also opens up the full wide-angle view of the selfie camera. The default field-of-view for the selfie shooter is 68-degrees, but a switch can be used to unlock the full 80-degrees. This switch is used in the stock camera app, but other apps default to the slightly zoomed in 68-degrees.

Unfortunately, this is a change apps are required to make. If they use their own camera viewfinders, an update must be pushed to take advantage of the ultra-wide camera on the back of the Galaxy S10 and the extra FOV on the selfie shooter. WhatsApp has already been updated to take advantage of this functionality.