[ydant]

That's a shame. I don't use it a lot, but it's contributed to my photographic memories over the years. Quality was never amazing, but it could make for some fun pictures.

A somewhat related feature I miss that Google dropped a while ago is Cardboard Camera.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr....

It basically took panoramas that also included a short clip of sound, which made for some fun "relive the moment" style picture/videos. It's a bit different from video, and was especially fun in the "turn your phone into a VR headset" short-lived experiment to teleport yourself back to a moment in time. They still work in Google Photos and there's still the little cardboard "VR" mode button to view them, although I imagine that'll silently disappear at some point.

Edit: As pointed out below, the Cardboard Camera functionality is in the official Google Camera panorama mode now (under settings when in that mode).

[Ajedi32]

It's also had great secondary benefits for Google Maps. I've contributed quite a few photo spheres to Google Maps over the years, which show up on Street View in areas that a Street View car would never be able to get to.

Example (not mine): https://www.google.com/maps/@49.0573911,-113.9034101,3a,75y,...

[BatFastard]

That is an impressive example.

[julienpalard]

Working for Google for free?

[Ajedi32]

I like helping people. If there's an open source equivalent of Street View I can contribute my photos to I'd be happy to upload them there as well.

[m-watson]

Yea, I agree. I similarly used it when I was moving I would take 360 photos of my old rooms or for seasonal decorations to see how the room changes over time. It looks like there are some decent 3rd party ones on the market but we'll see. It was a nice partner to cardboard.

[xnx]

Cardboard Camera was a great toy. It's amazing how much more immersive that type of capture can be.

Interesting to note that panoramas in the latest Google Camera app still have the option to record audio.

[ydant]

> Interesting to note that panoramas in the latest Google Camera app still have the option to record audio.

You're right! I've never tapped the settings icon on the panorama view, but sure enough, there's a "audio recording" option. It's unfortunately a bit hidden and thus hard to decide on a case-by-case basis, but it's there.

This effectively replaces cardboard camera. Thanks for pointing that out!

[andybak]

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/cardboard-camera/

[modeless]

The stereo effect Cardboard Camera produced was really good, just with a regular phone without needing any special stereo camera hardware. Shame it's not available anymore.

[andybak]

I'm still using Cardboard Camera. It installed on my new phone when I set up it (probably because it was on the previous device).

Have you tried grabbing the apk from somewhere?

[xnx]

I think you can still get it right from the Google Play app store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.sam...

[ydant]

That's Cardboard (the viewer app), not Cardboard Camera (the recording app).

But as mentioned elsewhere, the official camera app does offer this functionality.

[modeless]

It probably doesn't do the stereo image though, right? That was the coolest part. You need a VR device to see it properly but it really adds to the photo.

[andybak]

Ah - I presumed the reason people were mourning it's demise was because it wasn't still on the store!

[xnx]

Edit: Correction. The viewer app is on the store, not the camera app that allows you to take panoramas.

[andybak]

> official Google Camera

Oh - so official it won't install on any Android device I own?