Google says Pixel camera app will soon support external mics

Google will update the camera app on its Pixel smartphones to work with external microphones when shooting video, an employee from the app’s engineering team has confirmed. Android Police reported on the upcoming feature on Friday.

The Pixel is known for producing terrific still photos, and Google developed impressive stabilization for the video end of things. But the Pixel’s microphones only capture so-so audio. External mics that plug into the USB-C port (or headphone jack in the case of the original Pixel) can solve for this.

Some third-party Android camera apps like Open Camera already allow for external mics to record audio while the Pixel handles video. But having the option in the stock app will be nice for vloggers and other folks who use the Pixel as a content creation tool.

This update should become available at around the same time as the retail launch of the Pixel 3 on October 18th. “At the same time as Pixel 3 launch (October 18th), we will introduce support for Android-compatible plugged-in external microphones in the default camera app for all Pixels,” the engineer wrote on Google’s forums. If you know of any well-reviewed external mics that work with Android, please list ‘em off in the comments, as I’ve only used some from Shure and Apogee on iOS.

External mic support is somewhat niche, but remember that the older Pixels are also set to gain several of the new camera software features that Google showed off at the Pixel 3 event.

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