Huawei announced the Huawei P9 and Huawei P9 Plus in April 2016, and they’ve since been succeeded by the Huawei P10 and the Huawei P10 Plus. The P9 and P9 Plus are getting to the point in their lifecycles where you might expect software updates to slow to a trickle, but Huawei continues to enhance them with new features. Recently, an over-the-air update added a 3D panorama mode to the Huawei Camera app.
The Huawei P9 and the Huawei P9 Plus started receiving similar over-the-air updates this week, but they don’t contain the same exact changes. Still, both include a 3D panorama mode that lets you capture 3D dynamic images that show objects from multiple perspectives.
Using the 3D panorama mode, you can view an object through the camera app’s viewfinder and take photos from different angles, similar to how traditional panorama modes work. Once the 3D panorama is captured and processed, you can interact with it and see the different angles by swiping back and forth across the screen.
If you’re curious about how 3D panorama works, be sure to watch the embedded video. Luckily, you don’t need a Huawei P9 or Huawei P9 Plus to try it out — it can be added to any device running Huawei’s EMUI 5 software by sideloading this camera plugin.
Along with the 3D panorama camera mode, the new update rolling out to the Huawei P9 and Huawei P9 Plus adds a recycling bin to the Gallery app that will retain deleted photos for up to 30 days. It also adds a new split-screen feature, optimizes the phones’ App twin feature to support logging in with two accounts for apps such as Facebook Messenger, and integrates Google security patches for improved system security.
On the P9, it fixes an issue where the main and twin Facebook apps could not be online at the same time.
The updates are rolling out now.