In October, a Redditor published a detailed bug report behind the Pixel 10’s poor video stabilization with the telephoto camera, especially with EIS enabled. As it turned out, the problem stemmed from a fault in Google’s Camera API that led to a conflict between OIS and EIS and had nothing to do with the hardware. Since it’s a software issue, you’d think Google’s engineers would be quick to fix it. Unfortunately, it seems the company is not interested in addressing the issue at all.
Redditor u/No_Particular7571, who went to great lengths to track down the cause of the camera stuttering issue, reached out to Google with detailed reports in hopes of getting the issue fixed for good.
A Google support member supposedly told him a few weeks ago that the engineering team had “addressed the concern in the latest fixes.” But, based on the Redditor’s testing, that was not the case. After collecting more information from affected Pixel users, he sent another detailed report to Google to help address the bug.
Sadly, instead of acknowledging that the issue still exists or appreciating the Redditor’s extensive effort, Google’s support team offered a rather deflating response: “Thank you for your patience. Unfortunately, our engineers will need more time to look into this specific issue. While we can’t promise a fix to the specific issue you have, we do release bug fixes on a monthly basis. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
Even if the response came from a Google support representative, it’s still disappointing. For one, it dismisses the hard work the Redditor put in to track down the root cause, gather logs, and detailed bug reports — all in a bid to provide Google engineers with as much information as possible to fix the problem. Yet, it seems like the Pixel team has not made any noticeable progress on this front.
Why is Google dragging its feet on a major pixel bug?
The irony here is also hard to ignore. A Pixel user did all the hard work for Google, going as far as pinpointing the exact cause of the problem. Yet, the company can’t promise a fix.
Yes, there might be more technical challenges involved, but when a Pixel user provides such a detailed bug report on an issue that affects all Pixel phones, you’d expect a more detailed response and some urgency.
The cameras on recent Pixel phones have been heavily criticized for their inferior stabilization. So, it’s even more puzzling to see Google not jumping on a possible solution to this problem.
