Android General Settings
These Decisions Affect All Images
Whether you're looking to add gridlines, mute the shutter sound, or fine-tune how your camera saves photos, most of these adjustments happen outside the Camera app — in the Settings app of your phone.
Rhodes, Greece: An unexpected driver pauses for a quick photo. The various shades of green in her eyes beautifully echo the green tones in the background, creating a subtle yet striking harmony in the image.
Android Settings Location
Android settings vary slightly by brand.
Below is a general overview, with Samsung examples where helpful.
🔍Finding Your Settings Options
Open the Camera app.
Tap the gear icon ⚙️ in the corner (usually top-left or top-right depending on phone orientation).
This opens the Camera Settings menu.
📋 What You’ll Commonly See
The snippet below shows the screen you will typically see. As you scroll done various options appear. As you review this page, you will see that we have described each setting in detail, as well as offered recommendations as to how to set up your system. They are listed in the order they frequently appear.
Intelligent Features Decisions
📄 Scan Documents & Text
Let your camera do the work! This mode automatically detects papers like receipts, notes, or printed text and turns them into clear digital copies.
It can even pull out the text so you can copy, share, or save it. Super handy for organizing paperwork or grabbing info from a flyer.
Recommendation: ON ✅
🔲 Scan QR Codes
Just point your camera at a QR code – no extra app needed!
Great for quickly opening websites, menus, or saving contact info.
Recommendation: ON ✅
🎯 Shot Suggestions
Get on-screen help to frame your photos like a pro!
It suggests better angles, levels your shots , and helps you line things up.
But… it can feel a little busy or confusing for some users.
Recommendation: OFF ❌
📷Intelligent Optimization
This feature automatically adjusts things like brightness, contrast, and color to make your photos look better — even in tricky lighting.
You will need to click the “Intelligent Optimization” Button to see choices.
You can set it to:
Maximum – Full optimization for vivid, boosted results 🌈
Medium – Balanced enhancements 🪄
Minimum – Light touch, more natural look 🌿
While it can improve photos, it sometimes adds more processing than needed — especially if you like editing photos yourself or prefer a natural look.
Recommendation: ON Maximum ✅
Great for beginners, but if you're learning editing or prefer manual control, keep it off or at Minimum.
There will also be a “Scene Optimizer” button in this same screen.
Recommendation: ON ✅
Great for beginners.
If you're very advanced and prefer manual control, keep it off.
Picture Decisions
🎞️ Swipe Shutter Button to Create GIF
Here you have a choice to decide what happens when you swipe the shutter button down.
Create GIFs: Turn quick moments into fun GIFs – no extra app needed!
Just swipe and hold the shutter button , and your camera captures a burst of images , stitching them into an animated GIF automatically.
We recommend keeping on unless you want to take burst shots.
Here are the instructions to turn it on:
Open Camera app → Tap Settings → Select “Swipe Shutter button to” → Choose “Create GIF”
📸 Burst Shots
Burst mode captures a rapid series of photos — perfect for action, movement, sports, pets, or even wriggly kids. 🏃♂️🐶👶
But here’s the catch: it’s easy to accidentally take dozens of photos just by holding down the shutter button too long — sometimes without realizing it. 😅
This can also happen when someone else takes your photo, like a stranger helping with a quick snapshot. One press… 20 photos later! 📷📷📷📷📷
Recommendation: ON Create GIF unless Burst Shots are needed. ✅
🖋️ Watermark
This feature stamps your photos with a bit of text or logo – usually your phone model or a custom tag.
Useful for personal branding or marking your images, but not necessary for everyday photos.
How to adjust it:
Open Camera app → Tap Settings → Look for “Watermark” → Toggle ON/OFF or edit the text.
Recommendation: OFF ❌
Typically used by professionals protecting their work – most casual users can skip it.
🧰 Advanced Picture Options
This section includes settings that affect the file type and efficiency of your photos. These choices can impact compatibility, storage space, and image quality.
📦 High Efficiency Pictures
This option saves photos in a compressed HEIF/HEIC format to reduce file size and save storage.
While efficient, it may cause compatibility issues when sharing or editing your images across devices and apps.
🔧 Recommendation: OFF ❌
🖼️ Pro Mode Picture Format
If you use Pro Mode, this setting lets you choose the file format for those photos. Options usually include JPEG, RAW, or JPEG + RAW.
🔧 Recommendation: JPEG ONLY ✅
JPEG is easier to work with and widely supported.
RAW files are larger and meant for advanced editing — best for professionals.
Selfie Decisions
🤳 Selfies: Save as Previewed
This setting saves your selfies exactly as you see them on screen – like looking in a mirror . No flipping or reversing.
But… that also means text in the image (like signs or shirts) will appear backwards.
Recommendation: OFF ❌
With this OFF, your photos are saved in a true view — how others see you.
Text reads correctly
You look more like your real (non-mirrored) self
🔁 Swipe Up/Down to Switch Cameras
Quickly switch between front and back cameras by swiping on the screen.
Handy? Yes. But for beginners, it can lead to accidental camera flips.
Recommendation: OFF ❌
The circle camera switch icon is more intuitive and easier to control.
Less chance of flipping the camera by mistake!
Video Decisions
🎥 Auto FPS (Frames Per Second)
This feature automatically adjusts the frame rate based on the lighting conditions to improve video quality. In low light, it lowers the FPS to let in more light per frame, resulting in brighter, clearer footage without needing extra equipment. It balances performance and quality automatically for smoother results.
Recommendation: ON Use for 30 fps and 60 fps ✅
Great for shooting in varied lighting without needing to tweak settings manually.
Video Stabilization: This feature reduces unwanted motion in your videos, resulting in smoother footage. It compensates for camera shake, especially during handheld recording, by adjusting the frames to minimize blurriness and jitteriness. This is particularly useful when capturing videos while moving or in situations where using a tripod isn't feasible.
Recommendation: ON ✅
Advanced Video Options: These settings allow you to customize various aspects of your video recording experience. Depending on your device, options may include adjusting video resolution (such as switching between 1080p and 4K), changing frame rates, enabling high dynamic range (HDR) for better contrast and color, and selecting different video codecs for compression efficiency. Exploring these settings can help you tailor your recordings to specific needs or preferences.
Recommendation: OFF ❌
Beginners should not explore these various options as it can cause confusion.
General Setting Decisions
🎯 Tracking Auto-Focus
Tap to focus and let the camera do the rest! 📷
This feature keeps your subject sharp even if they move — great for pets, kids, or anything in motion. Just tap to lock focus and the camera will track it.
🔧 Recommendation: ON ✅
Super helpful for action shots and moving subjects.
#️⃣ Composition Guide: Grid Lines& Level
A simple overlay that helps you line up better photos using the rule of thirds – a pro tip for more balanced and eye-catching compositions.
Your eye will naturally use the lines when you need them and ignore them when you don’t.
Recommendation: ON ✅
Great for improving framing without any extra effort.
📍 Location Tags
Also called geotagging, this feature saves the where along with the what – helpful for organizing photos by place. Make sure your phone’s location services are on to use it.
Recommendation: ON ✅
Ideal for memory-keeping and sorting photos by location.
Take a look at the image below—it’s a close up of a pink flower, with no visible clues about where it was taken. But when you swipe up on the image, an information panel appears on your phone. Since the location tag was turned ON, you can now see useful details like the date, file size, and exact location.
In this case, we learn the photo was taken at 3030 Rue Saint-Ambroise, Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 17, 2023, and the file size is 3.05MB. Pretty amazing!
When you transfer your photos to a computer, this information (called metadata or EXIF data) is usually preserved—especially if you’re using a USB connection, AirDrop, or a file management app. However, some apps or methods (like certain editing tools or social media platforms) may remove this data during export or sharing, so it’s a good idea to check.
Google Photos does preserve this information, including location, date, and file size. It can also show you the folder the image came from—like in this example, where it was saved in a folder called “Smarter Photographs,” used for website content.
🛠️ Shooting Methods
Take pictures your way! Besides tapping the shutter button, some phones offer extra ways to shoot:
🔊 Volume Buttons – Take pics, zoom, or start video 🔧 Recommendation: OFF ❌
🎤 Voice Commands – Say "Cheese!" or "Record video" 🔧 Recommendation: OFF ❌
🫱 Show Palm – Raise your hand to trigger a selfie 🔧 Recommendation: OFF ❌
🎯 Floating Shutter – Move a shutter button wherever it's convenient. Recommendation: ON ✅
Some of the features above may be confusing for beginners. Stick with the main shutter button until you’re comfortable.
⚙️ Settings to Keep
This keeps your camera preferences (like filters, modes, angles) saved between uses. So you won’t have to reset things every time you open the app.
🔧 Recommendation: OFF ❌
Unless you use the same settings every time, it’s better to start fresh.
🔊 Shutter Sound
Click! 📸 This sound confirms a photo was taken.
You can turn it off in Settings, or mute your phone for total silence.
🔧 Recommendation: ON ✅
Unless you’re photographing something sensitive (like a sleeping baby 💤 or puppy 🐶), the click is helpful feedback.
📳 Vibration Feedback
Feel a gentle buzz when you take a photo. Good for noisy environments or users who prefer tactile feedback.
Recommendation: ON ✅
Try it out! If you often miss the shutter click sound in noisy areas, this sensation can be a helpful cue.
Privacy Settings Decisions
Take control of what your camera can access and how it handles your personal data. 🛡️
These settings help protect things like your location info, microphone use, and photo access.
🔒Adjusting privacy settings lets you decide what your camera app can (and can’t) do — keeping your data safe and usage transparent.
📋 Permissions Overview
📌 Required Permissions – These are essential for the camera app to work properly:
📷 Camera – Needed to take photos and videos
🎤 Microphone – Needed for video recording with sound
📡 Nearby Devices – Used for connecting with other devices (e.g. Bluetooth remote shutter)
🔔 Notifications – Allows the app to send photo-related alerts or tips
🖼️ Photos & Videos – Lets the app save and access your photo library
📍Optional Permission
🌍 Location – Tags your photos with GPS info so you know where they were taken (a.k.a. geotagging)
Tip: If you're privacy-focused, you can keep this OFF, but we really recommend turning it ON because it helps with organizing photos by place! You can also search by city and see where each photo was created in the information section of the file.
Other Choices
Reset Settings
Reset Settings: Selecting this will revert the camera app's settings to their default state. This can be useful if you've changed multiple settings and want to start fresh or if you're experiencing issues with the app.
About Camera
About Camera: This section provides information about the camera app, including the version number and legal details. It's helpful for troubleshooting or ensuring you have the latest version installed.
Contact Us
Contact Us: This option offers ways to reach out to the app's support team for assistance, feedback, or inquiries. It typically includes contact information or links to support resources.
✅ Quick Tips
If you're unsure where a specific camera setting is, try searching “Camera” in the Settings app’s search bar on either phone.
Apple separates camera settings from the Camera app, while Android puts most camera controls inside the app itself.
For Android users, accessing Pro Mode features like RAW toggle or manual settings often requires switching into Pro Mode first, then tapping the gear icon.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”