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Too many OEMs have too many different camera implementations.
What you need to know
- Moment is shutting down its Moment Pro camera app for Android.
- The app will remain in the Play Store, but no support or updates are forthcoming.
- The firm blames Android fragmentation as the main cause of death. With too many Android camera implementations, they just didn't have the "bandwidth" to keep up.
Pro Camera app maker, Moment, is ending support for its Android app today. The app will remain in the Play Store, but will no longer be updated. Its iOS app will continue on and remain being updated.
The announcement came today by email to Moment Pro users (via Justin Duino), explaining the reason for the shuttering of support.
In brief: It's Android fragmentation. To address iOS, Moment has a handful of models to build for, all of which are a known quantity. With Android, the camera app will have tens of configurations to address — and that's just for the most popular flagships. Once you start going affordable handsets and their nigh weekly release cycle, you can sort of see why they'd be drowning.
The letter reads in full (courtesy of 9to5Google):
Hey Everyone,
I'm one of the founders of Moment and I have some bad news about Pro Camera for Android. We love Android, but unfortunately, we don't have the engineering bandwidth to continue developing this app.
It breaks our heart to say this, but we've spent the last two years, yes two full years, trying to deliver a pro-level manual camera app for android. It should be simple, but unfortunately, it's not.
The short story is that phone makers like to create their own flavor of Android, each with different amounts of access to select camera features. The result has been a random compatibility list where each phone has different features in the app by phone model. The problem only gets worse every time a new version of Android comes out because it breaks the custom modifications these phone makers have made with their phones.
Despite years of messaging phone makers to share their changes and make camera features available to us, we haven't been able to change this culture. I wish we had dozens of engineers to continue developing this app, but we don't.
The app is still live in the Play store and we plan to leave it here for any customers who want to shoot with it. Going forward, if you are looking for a pro-level app for android we do recommend Filmic Pro. It is more expensive, but they're the best example of a pro-level camera app for android.
If you don't have or want Filmic Pro, we recommend Davinci Resolve (Free) or Handbrake (Free) both as great options to desqueeze anamorphic footage in post.
The team worked really hard on this product and it's sad not to be able to continue our work on it. We still love android, and we'll continue to make great gear for all of you.
Thank you for your support.
Marc Barros Co-founder Moment
Cameras have moved from an afterthought, to a luxury, to one of the main features of smartphones. Now smartphone makers are expected to launch devices with two, three, or even as many as five camera lenses just to be part of the conversation. The hardest part, besides getting the right hardware, is the software. A good camera app can make or break the experience, and OEMs didn't always get it right. Third-party apps like Moment offered additional flexibility for users who wanted more than what their OEM gave them.
Moment will still make hardware for Android phones, but its excellent app is now gone. There are a few alternatives, but it goes without saying that its loss will be deeply felt by those who relied on it.
by Michael Allison