If you’re a mobile filmmaker or a vlogger who has a Pixel smartphone, probably one of the more frustrating things is that you can’t use an external mic with the native camera app. The built-in camera app is probably one of the best things about Pixel devices but if it doesn’t have support for external mics, then you would have to switch to a third-party camera app. All that is about to change as someone from Google confirmed that they will finally be bringing that much-awaited support by October 18.
Of course October 18 is also the day when the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL officially hit the streets so it’s doubly special. But it’s more special for those who have been waiting for the external mic support so that it will enhance the audio of the videos that they take using the excellent Pixel camera apps, whether they’re shooting their latest vlog or doing a short film project using mobile videography.
The confirmation comes from Isaac, who says he’s one of the Pixel Camera engineers. He commented on a Pixel support thread that started back in 2016 and said he’d been “keeping an eye” on this particular thread and the good news is that one of the most requested features is coming the same day as the Pixel 3 launch which is October 18.
Of course it can’t be just any external mics that you can use with your Pixel device. It has to be “Android-compatible plugged-in external microphones” that you can finally use to enhance the audio when you shoot video with your Pixel camera app. Even better news is that it’s not just the Pixel 3 camera apps that will be update but also “the default camera app for all Pixels.”
If you’re using a Pixel 2 or you’re buying a Pixel 3, you will of course need to have the USB-C to headphone jack adapter since the newer ones don’t have the usual 3.5mm jack that we’ve gotten used to. A lot of external mics will probably have the 3.5mm jack so better make sure you have an adapter so you can use it with your Pixel device.
SOURCE: Google
