[Updated] Samsung Galaxy S10 front camera zoomed in with apps like Snapchat? Here’s what you need to know

NOTICE: We’ve created an archive of all major developments related to the Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup. We are continuously updating that page with latest S10e/S10/S10+ news so that you don’t need to search for information related to the device on daily basis. Head here to access that page.

There are new updates that have been added to the bottom of the story…

Another day, another Galaxy S10 bug. (or is it?)

Samsung is known for their camera processing techs, especially with their flagship Galaxy S and Note lineup. In terms of post capture software based tuning, Samsung even competes with Google Pixel phones, which are the one of the highest benchmark holders in Android smartphone photography.

The tradition continues with 2019’s Galaxy S10. Although some critics found the improvement negligible compared to previous generations, independent authorities like DxOMark praised the camera setup of the S10+ variant and gave it a jaw dropping top score of 109.

However, majority of the consumers are not ready to dive into the manual camera modes. Individual photography parameter tweaking seems alien to them, as they are happy enough to use the camera for social media apps like Snapchat or Instagram with tons of filters.

Did I just say filters?

A vast chunk of such users are not happy with the camera performances with their brand new Galaxy S10. They find the front camera is too much ‘zoomed in’, especially when used with Snapchat or WhatsApp or Instagram.

https://twitter.com/HannahJade89/status/1107272983784157184

My niece just got her S10. After using the Samsung app to transfer her days from the old SURE she tried to use Snapchat. But when Snapchat opens the camera the picture is very zoomed. If you use the camera app by itself and switch to the front camera it looks fine. Is there a fix for this issue in Snapchat? I have changed the display resolution as well as the front camera resolution and nothing fixed it .

(Source)

https://twitter.com/coopitan/status/1107807430400892928

Frustrated users tried contacting Samsung support. The replies were as typical as you could guess.

Someone was even offered a remote fixing session. The end result was not very satisfactory though.

I just got off the phone to Samsung’s tech team, the advisor remotely accessed my phone and did everything he could to resolve this issue. He checked all my settings and cleared my cache etc. After he looked into this further it appears it isn’t a Samsung fault, social media apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp etc need an update which will optimise and work with the S10 camera.

I must admit, at least they were trying to look at the bug from the correct angle. If you dig a little deeper, you can notice that the ‘zoomed in’ bug is kinda omnipresent among Snapchat user base. Moreover, it is not limited to Samsung made devices.

I’m wondering if the front-camera still looks like a pixelated mess and get’s zoomed in on snapchat for this phone. I have a mate 20 pro and it’s awful, on their website I see they mention this issue for the Iphones and pixel 3 so I wanted to know if it’s fixed or not so I know if they’re even gonna bother for the Mate 20 pro.

(Source)

The actual reason behind the issue is surprisingly elementary. For some unknown reasons, Snapchat developers decided to take a screenshot of the viewfinder instead of using the actual camera stack. As a consequence, the output is a messy and not optimized at all.

There is another side of the story as well. On devices like the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 3, Snapchat and other third party app can use the Pixel Visual Core to produce better quality photos.

Today we’re turning on Pixel Visual Core for Pixel 2 users—a custom designed co-processor for Pixel 2. Using computational photography and machine learning (which powers Pixel’s HDR+ technology), Pixel Visual Core improves image quality in apps that take photos.

This means it’ll be easier to shoot and share amazing photos on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, along with many other apps which use the Pixel 2 camera. All you need to do is take the photo and Pixel 2 will do the rest. Your photos will be bright, detailed, and clear.

With the announcement of Galaxy S10, Samsung took the same path as Google. They actually opened up their internal camera SDK to third party app developers to bring similar experiences to the native camera app.

Snapchat, Snow and Line are the first set of app to utilize the new SDK in future. In fact, Samsung introduced a dedicated Instagram mode in their native camera app.

Snapchat is already testing a not-so-secret alpha version of their app for Android. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel mentioned the necessity of revamping the app for better performance, which would be rolled out to general users by the end of 2019.

We hope Snapchat will eventually switch to a proper method of handling the camera. As a matter of fact, some users did mention about a new (alpha?) update that reportedly improved the performance on their S10.

Meanwhile, you can always take a picture using the stock camera app manually and then upload it from your gallery. The method requires some extra seconds, but it’s worthwhile.

While I am also miffed at this too, the solution I found was to take selfies using the camera app itself and then upload it to instagram/stories or snapchat via gallery

(Source)

Let’s hope that the developers will ditch the old and unsupported methods to take pictures from their apps in near future. They should come up with a proper solution to utilize the superior camera setup of the Galaxy S10 as well as other phones.

Users are reporting about Snapchat getting a new update, but sadly there’s no fix for the camera zoomed in problem yet.

According to a user, Samsung’s decision to add software based regular and wide angle option for the front facing camera of Galaxy S10 causes the ‘zoomed in’ bug.

Snapchat confirms fix for Samsung Galaxy S10, S9, and Note 9 camera zoomed in issue coming soon. On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy S10 users are encountering a black bar at bottom of the screen after the recent update. Complete coverage here.

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