Google turns on Pixel Visual Core for third-party apps

Google has announced that it is enabling the Pixel Visual Core for the second generation of its Pixel phones. As a result, third-party apps can now also use the chip when taking photos.

Google writes that the chip can now also be used by apps such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram. This should improve the quality of the photos, which are automatically adjusted. Like the Pixel’s camera, the Pixel Visual Core uses a technology that Google refers to as Raisr. This stands for rapid and accurate image super resolution and should use machine learning to ensure that zoomed photos appear sharper.

When the second generation of Pixel phones came out, they had the image processing chip on board but it was disabled. It was only possible to enable the chip in the latest developer preview of Android 8.1. That had to be done on the basis of a developer option. The Pixel Visual Core has a single Cortex A53 core as well as eight cores specifically made for image processing.

Enabling will happen in the February monthly update, which will be released over the next few days.