‘Moment Pro Camera’ Discontinues Android App Due to Fragmentation

• ‘Moment Pro Camera’ will no longer support the Android platform, as they have failed to deliver a working app in two years now.
• The developers have made sincere efforts to collaborate with the phone makers, but they couldn’t change their mindset.
• The app will now be exclusive to the iOS, while lenses compatible with Android phones will continue to be made.

One of the founders of ‘Moment Pro Camera’ has announced that they will no longer continue to make an Android version of their app, as the fragmentation that characterizes the popular mobile OS is far too great for their limited developer team to handle. As he stated, they have spent two full years trying to make their Android app work flawlessly, and they just can’t deliver a pro-level manual camera for that platform. Each phone maker is introducing their own customizations, giving developers different levels of access to the camera units of their devices, so it’s impossible to create something that works well with everything out there.

In addition to the endless list of Android devices, each time Google releases a new major version of their OS, everything breaks again and app developers are back to point zero. The ‘Moment’ team tried to convince phone manufacturers to share technical details about their cameras each time, but this effort didn’t yield very positive results. Thus, the app will remain as it is on the Play Store, not receiving any updates or support from now on, while the iOS app will continue to be fully supported and regularly updated. The following user ratings from the two stores reflect the problems that the Android ecosystem is facing, and on the other side the satisfaction that iPhone users are getting from the same app, even though it costs a tad bit more there.

Moment is making lenses for smartphones, enabling users to capture pro-grade quality images and videos. Professionals require features like manual settings for ISO, exposure, focus, and shutter speed, ability to shoot RAW, shoot in burst mode, get live histogram, use de-squeezing anamorphic algorithms, select different color profiles, monitor the brightness and exposure waveform, shoot on different bitrates, get a dual-channel audiometer, and many more. All of that is exactly what the ‘Moment Pro Camera’ app is offering, and what the team has been trying to bring on Android before they gave up.

This comes as a reminder of the fragmentation problem that has been plaguing Android from the cradle. ‘Moment’ says they still love Android and suggests “Filmic Pro” as a good alternative for the users of that platform. Judging from the low user rating (3.3) of Filmic Pro on the Play Store, it’s most likely beset by similar issues though. Those who are looking for tools that can de-squeeze anamorphic footage in post-processing can look at the free options of either “Handbrake” or “Davinci Resolve”.