Photo Sphere returns to Pixel phones, but still isn’t on Pixel 8 series

Google’s decade-old Photo Sphere feature briefly disappeared from Pixel phones, but it’s back now — unless you’ve got a Pixel 8 or 8 Pro.

As spotted by Reddit and Android Police, Photo Spheres are back in the Pixel camera app on the Pixel 7 series and older. The feature dropped from the camera app alongside the Pixel 8 launch, which introduced a redesign, but camera app version 9.2.113.604778888.19 restores Photo Sphere.

Photo Sphere can be found by swiping over to ‘Modes’ at the bottom and selecting it from the pop-up. Functionally, the feature hasn’t changed since it was removed, and it even looks the same as before.

For those not familiar with Photo Sphere, it’s like an advanced version of panoramic photos where users can stitch together a full 360-degree sphere of images.

Google rolled out Photo Sphere back in 2012, and it was on every Nexus and Pixel phone since, at least until the Pixel 8 series. And things haven’t looked good for Photo Sphere for some time — it was a headlining feature alongside the now-defunct Google+ social network, and Google killed off the Street View app that allowed people to capture Photo Spheres on any Android phone and even the iPhone. As such, it’s kind of surprising Google brought Photo Sphere back in the first place, but for fans of the feature, it’s a welcome return.

Source: Reddit (PourJarsInReservoirs), Android Police