A camera app for people who miss when camera apps were just camera apps.

Your photos stay on your phone. Halation doesn't even have the Android permission required to access the internet.

Coming to Google Play

Now in closed testing. Join the test →

Halation viewfinder framing a sunset over pine silhouettes, with the full photo-mode chrome — zoom column, mode chips, controls, shutter — laid out around the frame.

Tier 1 — Available now

Photo and Video modes
Manual aspect ratio, grid overlays, self-timer
Live luminance histogram and overexposure zebras
Burst mode via long-press shutter, plus time-lapse
EV compensation via vertical swipe, pinch-zoom across all lenses
Extension modes (HDR, Night, Bokeh) where the device supports them
Front and back camera, adaptive portrait/landscape layouts
EXIF preservation, customizable filename templates
Optional geotagging, off by default

Details

Halation's advanced controls sheet: Timer, Aspect, Grid, Enhance (Night), and Overlays (Geotag, Histogram, Zebras) each on their own row. — Advanced controls, one sheet.

Halation's self-timer countdown showing a large '8' inside a film-leader-style ring over a photo of a coffee mug. — Film-leader self-timer.

Recording gets out of the way

During capture, non-essential controls dim so the frame takes priority. Elapsed time and, optionally, file size are shown in a pill in the corner - easy to glance at, but not distracting.

Halation viewfinder framing a rabbit in grass during video recording. The elapsed pill reads 0:11 with a 7 MB counter below; non-essential chips render at reduced opacity; a red stop button sits at the right.

Lock focus, watch the histogram

Long-press anywhere in the frame to lock focus and exposure at that point. The live histogram shows what the sensor is actually seeing, so there's no surprises.

Halation viewfinder framing a backlit dandelion, with a yellow AE/AF lock ring on the flower and the live luminance histogram in the top corner.

See where you're clipping

Live overexposure zebras reveal clipped highlights before you take the shot, helping you get the exposure right in camera instead of fixing it later.

Halation viewfinder showing a cloudy sky with yellow zebra stripes overlaying the blown-out highlights.

Help test the beta

Halation is on Google Play's closed-test track, aiming for 14-30 photographers over about a two-week cycle before the wider beta opens. Testers who join during the closed test will get a free promo code for the Tier 2 Pro-mode paid unlock when Tier 2 ships.

To opt in, join the Halation testers Google Group. The testing guide walks through what to try and includes a "not yet implemented" list so you don't waste time reporting known gaps.

Coming next

Tier 2 — Manual controls + RAW

RAW (DNG) capture, with a dual RAW+JPEG mode
Manual dials for ISO, shutter, aperture, focus, white balance
Focus peaking
Custom picture profiles
Guided panorama
External mic support
Home-screen shutter widget

Tier 3 — Computational photography

Native Night Mode combines burst stacking, frame alignment, and denoising. It ships only after it reaches the same standard as the stock camera app on the target device.

The roadmap doesn't end with Tier 3. What comes next is shaped by feedback from users after each release.

What Halation won't do

Reach the internet. The app has no permission to access the network. Any attempt to upload data — whether from Halation itself or from a library bundled inside it — is blocked by Android before it leaves your device.
Show ads. Pay once to unlock every Pro feature, forever. There are no ads, no subscriptions, and no in-app store in the app.
Ask you to sign in. There's no account to create. On first launch, grant camera permission and you're straight into the viewfinder.
Upload your photos. Photos are saved to your phone. You can share or transfer them just like photos from any other camera app.