Third-party Android apps can now use Google’s Pixel 2 Visual Core

Photos taken with the impressive Google Pixel 2 smartphone will soon look better when taken with popular apps like Snapchat and Instagram. Google engineering manager Ofer Shacham posted the company was turning on the Pixel Visual Core technology to third-party apps. Shacham notes Visual Core powers the HDR+ technology debuted in the Pixel 2, which had only been accessible using the smartphone’s built-in camera.

Pixel Visual Core is built to do heavy-lifting image processing while using less power, which saves battery. That means we’re able to use that additional computing power to improve the quality of your pictures by running the HDR+ algorithm. Like the main Pixel camera, Pixel Visual Core also runs RAISR, which means zoomed-in shots look sharper and more detailed than ever before. Plus, it has Zero Shutter Lag to capture the frame right when you press the shutter, so you can time shots perfectly. What’s also exciting is these new features are available to any app—developers can find information on Google Open Source.