Google seems to be working on a native dashcam recording feature for some Android phones that can run in the background for up to 24 hours, and it looks great. 9to5Google Grab screenshots To update the personal security app for Android phones with the option that appears to be part of an internal test accidentally uploaded to Google Play.
The app appears to use compressed video to save space and let you turn off your screen or switch to another app — like Waze or Google Maps — while recording continues in the background. You’ll also be able to set up triggers, such as connecting to a specific Bluetooth device, to automatically start recording as soon as you start your car. You can configure it not to record audio.
Recordings will be automatically deleted after three days (you can save specific videos to prevent this), and recording will stop automatically at 24 hours.
Dashcam apps are nothing new, as there are plenty on both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store, and many of them can run in the background. But if you’ve ever tried to use your smartphone as a dashcam, you already know the limitations.
Recording hours of HD video quickly eats up storage space (although dedicated dashcam apps like Android Dashcam let you configure the recording resolution), and your phone, which probably already runs warm if the camera has been open long enough, gets very hot when it’s sitting in the sunlight streaming through your windshield while you’re recording video or using a GPS app.
Another issue is whether the app takes into account things like optical image stabilization, which can be damaged by small vibrations that occur in some engines, Like those on motorcycles, breed (Something I tried years ago while using an old HTC phone as my handlebar-mounted action cam). But free is hard to beat, and if Google has it built in, you don’t have to worry about trawling through ad-serving hell of apps to find a good one.
We don’t know how Google plans to mitigate the heat issues or how it deals with the potential damage to a camera that uses optical image stabilization, which is a thing Apple warns customers – He may simply choose a lens without this feature. We also don’t know which phones will support the app, but hopefully it will work with any Android phone running the Personal Security app and not just Pixels.