Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The latest Pixel Camera update (version 10.x) now requires Google Play Services, causing crashes on de-Googled systems like GrapheneOS.
- The app fails to launch because it can’t find a font that’s only provided through Google Play Services.
- Users can fix the issue by rolling back to an older version (9.9.106.773153235.19) of the app or by using sandboxed Play Services on GrapheneOS.
Earlier today, we reported that the latest Pixel Camera update (version 10.x) was crashing on de-Googled operating systems like GrapheneOS. The issue stems from a newly introduced dependency, with the app now requiring Google Play Services to function. Without Google Play Services, it simply crashes or refuses to fire up. We’ve since learned why that dependency exists, and the reason is surprisingly trivial.
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As Android Authority contributor Assemble Debug points out, the problem boils down to a missing font. Based on a crash log shared by a user in the GrapheneOS Telegram group, Assemble Debug concluded that the app now calls for Google Sans Flex, a font provided only through Play Services.
The latest Pixel Camera update introduces a new font resource ID (0x7f090013) for Google Sans Flex. The previous version of the Pixel Camera app (version 9.9) did not include references to this font, and the app worked fine on GrapheneOS and other de-Googled Android builds.
However, in version 10, the Pixel Camera app now relies on Google Play Services as the font provider. This is why the app crashes without Play Services.
Code
<font-family
app:fontProviderAuthority="com.google.android.gms.fonts"
app:fontProviderPackage="com.google.android.gms"
app:fontProviderQuery="Google Sans Flex" />It’s an amusingly small change that’s causing users a big headache, but it also shows that Google’s apps are becoming increasingly dependent on its own services.
If you’re facing the issue, the simplest fix is to roll back to version 9.9.106.773153235.19 (Build ID 68469120) of the Pixel Camera app. However, users will need to uninstall the current version first, then block updates to prevent future issues. And as we noted in our previous article, those running sandboxed Play Services can still use the latest version of the Pixel Camera app without problems.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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