Vivo’s Android camera app makes the Pixel and Galaxy feel dated

But while I was enjoying my honeymoon with that camera, I was appreciating something less flashy but more useful in everyday use: the standard camera app

It’s one of those features that doesn’t appear on spec sheets, but it quietly changes how comfortable the phone is to use, especially when it comes to a camera like the vivo X300 Ultra. After spending some time with it, I really think this is something Google and Samsung should copy for their Pixel and Galaxy phones. And apparently, Apple is sure too.

Vivo’s camera app is ridiculously customizable in a way that most Android brands don’t even attempt. At the top of the camera interface, vivo gives you a fully customizable “Shortcut bar”. You can choose up to four controls to permanently sit on top for quick access. There’s also a set of up to three customizable shortcuts that can be seen directly inside the right-hand viewfinder.

In both of these fields, you can place options such as:

• Manual/autofocus switch
• Super macro
• Google Lens
• High resolution mode
• Live Photo
• Aspect ratio
• Raw Lighting
• Countdown timer
• Styles/filters
• Snapshot mode

What I like is that vivo doesn’t force its priorities on me. When I launch the camera app, I can completely rearrange, move, remove, or add new controls depending on what kind of shot I’m shooting or my preferred setup. Seeing too many shortcuts can sometimes be confusing and unnecessary, and this way I can prioritize options I use often over options I rarely touch.

For example, if I’m casually shooting outdoors, I might prefer aspect ratio and Live Photo. If I experiment with close-ups, I can easily achieve macro and manual focus. If I don’t want any clutter, I can delete everything. This flexibility is great, especially compared to being stuck with a camera interface that you can’t change.

Most smartphone camera apps still operate under the assumption that there is one correct layout for everyone. This is especially true for Pixel and Galaxy phones. Don’t get me wrong, both Samsung and Google offer it feature-packed camera apps Really nice to look at and use. At the same time, they are incredibly rigid, with no way to customize controls or organize features like on vivo phones.

The app even lets you customize the Toolbox, a sub-row of camera tools that appears when you click the options button. You can completely rearrange this order by simply dragging the options up or down to prioritize the controls you use most.

These tools overlap with shortcut options. So if you prefer a cleaner shooting experience, you can remove all shortcuts from the main interface and rely on the Toolbox only when needed.

The customization options don’t end there. You can even add, remove, or rearrange the Home screen modes that appear next to the Photo and Video options. Obviously these two are grayed out and cannot be changed as they are the main shooting modes, but the rest are completely customizable. In addition, you can choose from Pro Photo mode, Ultra HD Document (for taking clear document photos), Food photo mode, and more. you can add to these options including

This is the level of customization that every Android phone, heck, every phone, should offer. If it’s my phone, I want the camera UI to be personal and tailored to what I’m shooting, rather than being limited by one brand to what I need to use.

Taking camera app customization and customization a step further, 3vivo also includes five camera UI presets:

• Default
• Immersive
• Stage
• Scenic
• Video Creation

And these are not just cosmetic issues; they actually reorganize the camera experience, including a mode carousel, toolbox, and shortcut layout.

For example, the Immersive preset removes some top shortcuts and reduces visible controls to prioritize a cleaner shooting experience. The carousel is also simplified to just Photo, Video, Portrait and more. Meanwhile, Video Creation brings preset video tools and modes to the fore, while Scene offers concert-focused recording features.

So if you don’t want to go through the trouble of organizing your camera layout, you can just use one of these presets to automatically minimize distracting options.

Again, this recognizes that different users, and even the same user in different situations, want different camera experiences. This is a level of UI flexibility that we’ve almost never seen from major smartphone brands.

This kind of customizable camera approach makes so much sense that even Apple is moving in that direction.

According to a recent report Bloomberg According to the report, Apple is planning a more customizable Camera app for future iPhones as part of its next major software redesign. Users can decide which controls appear, where they are placed, and which features they want to prioritize, it said.

In other words, Apple seems to have realized that camera apps should adapt to users, not the other way around.

I really hope that Google and Samsung, especially Android cameras Just start embracing more AI-powered photography features that will add to the multitude of options already available to users.