The Google Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X may have just received their second and final OS update in the shape of Android Oreo, but these two won’t be going away anytime soon.
The number of people that still rock both devices is still significant and as such, there will always be new things to celebrate about owning the Google Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X, even if they are not coming directly from Google. In fact, the two have seemingly fallen out of favor with the search giant. For instance, despite having the right hardware, they haven’t received the Zero Shutter Lag feature that makes the Google Pixel and Pixel XL cameras so good.
Google decided to limit the feature to the Pixel lineup, something that left many Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X users frustrated. The good side of the story is that the Nexus and Pixel development community never lets anything pass by easily and in August, an unofficial camera app known as Google Camera NX was unveiled. With this app, Google Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X users were finally able to enjoy just about all the goodies that Pixel users already enjoy through the official camera app.
One problem with using HDD+ is that after capturing a photo, the viewfinder can be locked up for a second or two. With Zero Shutter Lag, this problem is eliminated when using HDR+, allowing you to capture photos in rapid succession, even when in a fast-moving object.
Before the Google Pixel 2, all updates that were directed to the Google Camera NX were based on the original Pixel phones. But now that the second-generation Pixels are here, the game has changed and now the updates are based on the camera features of the Pixel 2. The latest addition is based on the official Google Camera version 5.1 and as expected, most of the features of this app have accompanied the update to the Google Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X.
Two of the most notable additions are Motion Photos and Face Retouching features. Where the former detects motion in the viewfinder and captures a few seconds of video before and after pressing the shutter button, the latter is the search giant’s take on the famous beauty mode feature that smoothes out imperfections in a photo to make it look much better.
There are two versions of the mod available for download. One has Zero Shutter Lag and one doesn’t. The latter version should deliver the same results as the official Google Camera app you already have on your Google Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X, but you get to enjoy the Motion Photos feature. As for the former, it’s the real gem that works exactly as it does on the original Pixel phones. Note that you’ll still miss out on the new Portrait and AR modes due to the lack of proper hardware.
The download links to the two versions of the Google Camera NX app are here (with Zero Shutter Lag) and here (without Zero Shutter Lag).