Strings of code reveal Google’s plan to always show RAW images on the Photo app’s main Photos feed
Since RAW photos are not stored in the cloud, you currently won’t see them in the main photos feed on the Android version of the Google Photos app. But a hidden string of code reveals a change to this as it shows the phrase “You can now access the RAW photo here” that could soon surface on the app. And based on other strings of code discovered, even if Google Photos Backup is disabled, RAW photos will appear in the app’s Photos view.
RAW images in the Google Photos app’s Today setting. Image credit 9to5Google
Another string shows that with Backup enabled but RAW folder upload disabled, RAW images will be uploaded anyway. As 9to5Google points out, with the aforementioned settings the string of code with the phrase, “New RAW photos will appear in the Photos view and will now be backed up” doesn’t make sense unless the word “now” should have been “not.” Either way, RAW images should appear in the Photos view.
How to shoot using RAW on a Pixel 6 or 7
How to take RAW images using your Android phone
To take RAW images on your Android phone, open the camera app and tap the gear icon in the upper left corner. Tap More settings > Advanced and toggle on the RAW+JPEG control. As Google notes, “The RAW (DNG) file is saved separately, along with identifiable camera data, in a device folder in Google Photos.” Doing this will require the use of additional storage.
Once the RAW+JPEG setting is toggled on, with the camera drop-down menu showing, you can tap on RAW to receive both RAW and JPEG versions of your photos. And if you don’t want to have your storage consumed quickly, do not arrange to back up RAW images in the cloud. Keep in mind that for RAW images to appear in the Google Photos app’s feed, you have to be shooting in RAW. Make sure that if this is what you want, you have the settings enabled as described above.
Now that we are wrapping up this story, here’s a trivia question. What was the first smartphone to support RAW? No, it was not the iPhone. Actually, the Nokia Lumia 1520, which was released back in 2013, was the first smartphone to capture images in the RAW format. The Windows Phone handset was equipped with a 20MP rear camera sensor.
