Your Android Camera Can Do More Than Just Take Photos And Videos

Your Android phone’s camera has evolved from being a simple point-and-shoot tool to a symbiotic combination of hardware and software that is packed with all sorts of features. In fact, the Samsung Galaxy camera alone comes with loads of functionality, including a Snapchat filter, custom watermarks for photos, and a GIF recorder. If you’re not content with those, there are more essential Android apps for photography available for download from the Play Store. These can include advanced features for DSLR photography and photo and video editing to make your memories more visually striking.

There’s no denying that the Android camera is one of the best ways to snap photos and record videos on the go. But while it’s true that it’s primarily designed for such purposes, what it can do actually goes beyond that. When you pair your Android camera with some nifty third-party apps, you can start using it as a visual aid, a navigation tool, or even a skin analyzer. 

Whenever you want to measure your heart rate — maybe to check how intense your exercise was or just to monitor your overall health — you’d normally rely on a smartwatch or count it manually. But what if you don’t own any Apple or Android smartwatches and you feel like your manual measurement isn’t too accurate? Well, there’s actually another handy tool you can use to get your heart rate, and it’s one thing you always have on your person: your Android camera. 

Yes, your Android phone, specifically its camera, can read your heart rate with the help of an app aptly named Instant Heart Rate. The app is trusted and used by the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford Medicine, and it has been on the Play Store for over 15 years. How it works is simple: open the app and rest your index finger over the main rear camera lens. After ten seconds or so, you’ll then get your heart rate in BPM, a PPG graph, and a training zone chart showing what zone (Rest, Warm Up, Fat Burn, Cardio, Extreme, and Max) your heart rate falls into. The results page also includes options to add a tag and note to your result for easy reference later. From here, your heart rate is saved in the Insights tab, where you can see all your measurements in the past day, week, month, or year. 

Unfortunately, Instant Heart Rate isn’t free. You do get five free measurements when you sign up, but once that’s consumed, you’d need to subscribe to a Premium account.

Android includes a host of accessibility features for people with vision impairments, helping them navigate and use the device. But your phone actually has another built-in accessibility tool — the camera — that can help interact with and understand the real world. It doesn’t do this out of the box, though. You’ll need to download an app like Microsoft Seeing AI or Google Lookout (one of the underrated Google apps you need to try). With these apps, you can turn your phone into an assistive utility to explore and identify objects in your surroundings.

Seeing AI features three main tabs. The first tab, Read, is a text reading tool that can speak any text the camera sees, whether that’s on a screen or a piece of paper. The next tab is Describe, which is designed to tell you what it sees on the picture you took. If you have more questions about the image, it comes complete with an AI chatbot you can talk to. Finally, you have the More tab with everyday tools like a barcode scanner to identify the product you’re holding, a people detector to tell you the number of people around and their proximity to you, and a currency recognition tool to check the value of a banknote. You can also use the More tab to identify nearby colors and the amount of light. 

Google Lookout essentially serves the same purpose as Seeing AI, only with a different layout. Both apps have a history tab to check objects and people you previously scanned and identified. 

Grocery store items often come with a nutrition facts label to help you understand what nutrients you’re getting from the product. But no matter how detailed these labels are, they can still be quite confusing and overwhelming. Sure, you’ll know that the pretzels you got have 400 mg of sodium, but you can’t really tell whether that’s actually good or bad for you. To take the guesswork out of grocery shopping, one of the essential Android apps you should be using is a food scanner like Yuka.

This app uses your Android camera for scanning both food and cosmetic products. After reading the barcode, it will give you a score out of 100. The higher the score, the better the product is for your health. It will also show you an easy-to-understand breakdown of the negative and positive ingredients in that food or cosmetic item. If a product falls in the Poor or Bad category, Yuka offers a healthier alternative you can go with instead. The app stores a history of all the products you previously scanned, too. At the moment, there are at least four million food products and two million cosmetic items in Yuka’s database. It adds roughly 1,200 new products daily.

While Yuka is mostly free, you have the option to upgrade to the Premium version. This allows you to scan items without connecting to the internet or search for items instead of scanning them.

Google Maps is useful not only for getting around on a vehicle, but also for getting to nearby, walkable locations. But even with the app open, you’re still bound to get lost while walking, especially when you’re faced with multiple confusing roads. Lucky for you, Google Maps has a hidden feature that can save you from all that hassle. Called Lens in Maps, this tool uses your Android phone’s camera to identify nearby landmarks and point you in the right direction. It’s powered by artificial intelligence and augmented reality, so it can consume quite a bit of battery. But it does come in handy in a pinch. 

To access Lens in Maps and use it for navigation, all you have to do is launch Google Maps, search for your destination, and go to Directions. In the Walking tab, you should see a Live View button. Tap it, then simply point your camera at the road ahead. You can also aim it at street names and landmarks, so Lens can better understand where you’re currently standing. Make sure not to point it at passersby, though.

After the tool is calibrated, you’ll see large blue and white arrows guiding you to where you need to go. They only appear one at a time, and once you reach the next navigation step, a new arrow pops up. You’ll feel a vibration once you get to your desired location. Keep in mind that Lens for navigation is only available if the area you’re walking in is covered by Street View. Your Android phone should also work with ARCore to support the feature.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can better take care of your skin, a visit to a licensed esthetician is a good place to start. But if you don’t have the time or budget for that yet, there’s an at-home and more accessible solution you can try first: your Android camera. It can give you a quick glimpse of what your skin might need via a personalized skin analysis you can do right from the comfort of your home.

For this, you won’t have to install any app. All you have to do is launch your phone browser and hop on a website. There’s a bunch available online, but you can start with MySkin by Cetaphil, Neutrogena Skin360, and MyRoutine AI by Laroche Posay. These free analyzers generally work the same: Point your camera at your face, wait for a few seconds, and review the generated analysis. It’s best to do the analysis in a well-lit area without eyeglasses, hair, makeup, or masks covering your face to get more accurate results.

After a while, the free analysis will appear. This typically includes details, such as which parts seem to have dark spots, are lacking hydration, or forming wrinkles. From the analysis, the tools then recommend what products from that specific brand would work well for your skin problem. Some tools will even create a morning and night skincare routine for you. Depending on what skin analyzer you used, though, you may be prompted to input your email address, where the complete skin report will be sent.