Ryan Haines/Android Authority
TL; DR
- Samsung has updated the Camera Assistant app with new features and tweaks.
- New features include a quick shutter option and screen dimming while recording.
Samsung launched the Camera Assistant app as part of its Good Lock series of add-ons last year, allowing Galaxy owners to adjust even more settings in their phone’s camera app. These options include toggles for smoothing, auto HDR, lens switching, and more.
Perhaps the most notable new feature is a quick-press shutter option, allowing you to take a photo when you first press the shutter button rather than when the shutter button is released. . Enabling this feature also changes the behavior of the shutter key when held down, taking a photo first, then taking a GIF, video, or photo burst.
Another new addition in the Camera Assistant update is the ability to dim the screen while recording, which is a handy way to save battery life. Users can set the display to dim after one minute, two minutes, five minutes, or 10 minutes of recording without touching the screen.
What else to expect from the Camera Assistant update?
There are also several tweaks to existing features, starting with the smoothing/softening toggle. It is now a three step setting (off/medium/high) instead of a simple on/off toggle. The company provided an example of the effect, showing varying levels of sharpness. Check it out below.
The Faster Shutter option has also been changed, now allowing you to choose different options to shoot at normal resolution or high resolution. When shooting at normal resolution, you can choose between quality priority (slower but high quality), a balanced option, and speed priority (shooting faster at the expense of quality) . Meanwhile, high-res shooting only offers quality priority and speed priority options.
Finally, Samsung has adjusted the timer functionality, now allowing you to choose a shooting interval (e.g. shooting every 1.5 seconds, two seconds, 2.5 seconds or every three seconds.
The Korean brand also used the post to note that Samsung Camera Assistant will now be available on the Galaxy S20 series and later, Galaxy Note 20 line, Galaxy Z Fold 2 and later, and Galaxy Z Flip 3 and later. This update, however, requires the One UI 5.1 update, which is currently rolling out to a host of devices.
