Newsletter
Google has pushed a new app to the Google Play Store, the ‘Magnifier’. This application is exclusively available for the company’s Pixel phones, and you’ll need to have a Pixel 5 or newer in order to use it. Well… kind of.
The Google Magnifier app is now available for all modern Pixels, but not the Pixel Fold
That’s the info that Mishaal Rahman shared on Twitter, but it turns out that it doesn’t apply to all Pixels. The app is available for the Pixel 7 Pro, we tried it out, but we cannot install it on the Pixel Fold, at least not through the Play Store.
This leads me to believe that it is available for the Pixel 5 and newer Pixels, but only “regular” Pixels. That leaves the Pixel Fold on the sidelines for whatever reason. The listing literally says “This foldable isn’t compatible with this app”, as you can see below.
In any case, if you can install it on your phone, this app could prove to be quite useful. It uses your Pixel’s camera “to magnify small text, see object details, or zoom in on faraway text like street signs or restaurant menus behind a service counter”.
You can even control the flashlight intensity via this app
It allows you to change the image brightness and contrast, zoom in even further to get a better look, use filters, copy text with Google Lens, and more. In fact, it even allows you to control the flashlight intensity, which is a nice touch.
The official images Google shared are in the gallery below the article, and they’ll give you a good idea of what you’re getting here. If this is the use case you find yourself in often, getting the Magnifier app may not be a bad idea.
You’ll hopefully be able to download it without a problem. It works fine on the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel 7 Pro, but not the Pixel Fold. The listing specifically mentions this because we’re looking at a foldable phone here, so it’s presumably the only Pixel phone newer than the Pixel 4 series that it’s not available for. Let’s hope Google will change that soon.