Lens-maker Moment will abandon its camera app for Android phones

Today, in an email, smartphone lens-maker Moment announced that it will abandon the Android version of the Moment Pro Camera app. The company has spent the past two years developing the professional camera app that integrates well with its line of interchangeable lenses.

In the email, the company says it loves Android, but it doesn’t have “the engineering bandwidth to continue developing this app.” Although the email doesn’t confirm this, it is assumed that that iOS version of the Moment Pro Camera app will continue to receive updates and development.

The Moment Pro Camera app will remain on the Google Play Store for the time being. However, it will no longer receive any updates and will, eventually, become so outdated that it likely won’t work well anymore. It also won’t be updated with new settings for future Moment lenses.

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Moment places most of the blame for the demise of the app on Android OEMs, specifically Google, Samsung, and OnePlus, the only three Android OEMs Moment supports. Because of the differences between Android versions combined with the differences between Android skins (and even differences within the same skin but for different phones), Moment simply can’t keep up. “Despite years of messaging phone makers to share their changes and make camera features available to us,” the email says, “we haven’t been able to change this culture.”

Going forward, Moment recommends the popular app Filmic Pro as a replacement for the Moment Pro Camera app. However, Filmic Pro is notoriously expensive and doesn’t have full integration with all of Moment’s lenses. While it will be an OK substitute, it won’t be perfect.

Moment closes out its email saying that it still loves Android and will continue making gear for Android phones.