Google is improving AR performance on Android mobiles with dual cameras

Google is updating its augmented reality SDK, so dual-camera phones can better capture depth information. As the Android Police noted, the most recent update to the Google Play Services app for AR, which is how Google distributes ARCore features, now notes "Dual Camera Stereo Depth on Supported Devices" in its changelog.

As of now, it appears that support will be limited to Google's own Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, which were released in 2019. The list of supported ARCore devices on Google's developer site says that dual-camera support will be rolled out in the next few weeks.

In specific, this means that the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, both Pixel 2020 phones with dual cameras, will not see the benefits for now. That may be because its secondary cameras are ultra-wide rather than the telephoto of the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, which would have implications for how they could produce more detailed depth maps.

In any case, it is another consequence of Google's indecision on Pixel camera lenses. The company long insisted it only needed a camera due to computational features like Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 3, then confusingly added a telephoto lens on the Pixel 4 anyway, then backtracked swapped it for an ultrawide on the Pixel 5.