I don't know how modded GCam apks work but I use the latest one for the better Night Sight feature. I think many people do this, at least Samsung S10 owners, from what I've read on the S10 sub. Looks like Google updated it with a decent update today:
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-camera-7-4-8x-zoom-pixel-4-xl-prepare-pixel-5/
That is probably a hardware thing so maybe it won't be something that other phones can use but it's still a big deal for Pixel users.
The Nexus line had its flaws and I'm sure some people back then wished Google would make its own hardware and operate like Apple, but I think that experiment has run long enough and it still has its flaws and complaints about Google executed the Pixel lineup. I kind of wish Google would go back to selecting a flagship from an OEM and making it a Nexus device with all the bells and whistles.
One of the glaring issues Android has always had was timely updates for non-Nexus/Pixel devices and that issue will always exist, no matter how hard Samsung or Moto or whoever pledges to increase the frequency of security updates and the duration of support for its flagship phones. But Google keeping some of the features Pixel-exclusive is a bit shitty.
I'm not saying make all features available to all OEMs that want it, but if Google is thinking keeping these features exclusive to the Pixel lineup is a way to sell more units, it clearly isn't working since Samsung outsells them in the US. I would think internationally, it's the Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi.
But a Google still has leverage with its image processing algorithm, which everyone is clamoring for. Sure, Google has a big problem of diluting its reservoir of services, letting them remain stagnant, and then eventually ending support for them, and not before making another service or two that does the same thing, but one minute thing differently so it all gets so confusing. But whatever Google has made that has stuck around for a long time is really good and one of the best in the industry and for them to offer it only on Pixel devices cuts out the vast majority of users.
I just think they'd be better off offering it to anyone that wants it; leave it to the OEMs or even the user to decide if their phones can handle it or not and if it's worth using. The other alternative is to make the Pixel priced like the early Nexus lineup and have hardware that genuinely makes people want to leave giants like Samsung or the Chinese OEMs that are so popular in the Asia. But I think the former situation is more likely to happen than the latter.
