Google’s March 2025 Pixel Feature Drop is here, bringing Pixel Camera 9.8 along with new capabilities for photography and video recording. While this update is smaller than the December 2024 release—which introduced Quick Access Controls—it still comes with some useful changes and improvements, particularly for Pixel Fold users and those taking advantage of Google’s new Connected Cameras feature.
So, what’s new in Pixel Camera 9.8?
The latest Pixel Camera update brings a few tweaks and clarifications over the previous Pixel Camera 9.7 update. This includes a toggle for Astrophotography Animation. Google will now let users disable animations for Astrophotography shots with a new “Turn on animation for Astrophotography” toggle. Users can find this under Settings > Advanced. By default, this remains enabled, preserving earlier behavior.
Google is also clarifying some information about the Palm Timer for Rear Camera. The company says that the “raise your hand” gesture for the Palm Timer works not just on the front camera, but also the rear camera.
Pixel Fold users also have some new features and changes they can look forward to in the update. This includes video functionality, such as Dual Screen Preview for video recording. This is where both the internal and external displays can be used while capturing video. Google is also bringing the Add Me feature to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. For those unfamiliar, Add Me mode uses AI to insert people into shots and can now appear on the external display to help with better framing.
Connected Cameras
One of the biggest additions in the March 2025 Feature Drop is the Connected Cameras feature. This is—for now—exclusive to the Pixel 9 series, which includes the base Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold. This feature lets users seamlessly capture or live stream using remote cameras from supported apps.
According to Google, the cameras currently supported include the Pixel 6 and later and the GoPro Hero 10 and newer. Just make sure to update to the latest software version and you should be good to go. Users can use Connected Cameras with apps such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
Setting it up is also relatively straightforward. On your Pixel 9 phone, go to Settings > Connected Devices > Connected Preferences > Connected Cameras. After that, the Camera Picker allows you to easily switch between your phone’s camera and a remote camera.
That being said, keep in mind that you can only connect to devices signed in with your Google Account. Secondly, only one remote camera can be connected at a time. Lastly, the audio comes from the active camera, so your mileage may vary depending on the quality of the device’s microphone.
