Android 4.3 also brought a physical camera button: Surprise!

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Android 4.3 also brought a physical camera button: Surprise! The Android 4.3 update brought along a much awaited and requested novelty – needless to say the best feature of the entire OS update – and Google simply forgot to mention this fact? Did you already notice it or were you also left out of the loop?

android-jelly-bean-surprise — How could we have missed it or rather, why didn’t Google announce it more openly? © Google/

Sometimes the biggest discoveries happen by accident! This is how I felt when on Friday evening, I noticed that the both speaker buttons, at least on the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 4, also work as a physical shutter for the camera. What!?

My first thought was that I must have completely missed this in the beginning, but then even the tech Guru Nico from our AndroidPIT team didn’t have a clue and was just as confused as me. Back a few weeks ago, we wrote about the functions that Android 4.3 brought to the table. Even in many world-wide tech magazines, there was no mention of this new, yet elusive camera function. We were therefore not the only ones who missed the boat.

Even Google themselves didn’t mention it

Shattered by our own ignorance, we turned our attention to Android itself and lo and behold, there was absolutely no trace of this function on even the official 4.3 update website. We are perfectly dumbfounded and cannot fathom a worthy explanation. As a matter of fact, many Android users and myself had been waiting for a physical camera button and up until now this feature was only available through external software. Now it seems that it is an integral part of Android and this is good news. Let’s just wait and see what will happen with the inquiry that we have just made with Google.

More: New Android 4.4 screenshots and features

Needless to say, we are slightly embarrassed that we noticed this so late in the game, seeing as we are supposed to be Android insiders. If we missed it, how many of you did too? We didn’t want to lose out on the chance to share this piece of news with you, even if it is slightly stale. And now it seems that Android 4.3, which we had deemed as the most boring of all past updates, is actually not that dull at all.

To all of you who already have Android 4.3: did you notice this new function or did it blow over your head too?