How to take photos on an Android phone

If you have an Android phone the home screen will look something like one of these:

Two different Android phones, both of these show the home screen with various apps, the camera app is shown either in red or in blue

This Android phone is only showing 5 apps on the home screen

On most Android phones, the camera app will be on the home screen by default, so just tap it to get started. If not, there are a few ways to find the camera app on Android. On most Android devices, you can open the app drawer to locate the app.

  1. Unlock your device.
  2. While on the home screen, slide up from the bottom of the screen.
  3. Here, browse through your apps until you find the Camera app.

You can also tap on the Search bar at the top of the app drawer and type “camera.”

Here’s a quick look at how to take a photo on Android:

  1. Open the Camera app.
  2. Make sure Photo is highlighted at the bottom of the capture area. Tap the “rotating arrows” icon to the left of the shutter button if you want to take a selfie.
  3. Line up your shot inside the screen. Tap the screen to set the camera’s focus to a specific part of the frame if you want to.
  4. Tap the shutter button.
The camera app should look something like this

This stores the picture immediately, and you’re all set to view it. Of course, you can adjust and change specific settings depending on what kind of picture you’re trying to take. You use Portrait mode, for example, to focus on an object or person and blur out everything else in the shot.

How to Shoot Video With Android

Video capture with Android is also quite easy. Here, all you need to do is the following:

  1. Open the Camera app and select the Video option from the menu that’s either above or below the shutter button.
  2. Press the red shutter button to start shooting.
  3. Press the shutter button again when you want to stop filming.

In most cases, if you’re looking for content you recently captured, you can access it by opening the Camera app and tapping the image icon which on the image above is on the bottom right of the screen but on your phone it might be on the left. This will show the latest photo or video you have taken a and if you it takes you to a file-by-file gallery where you can view one picture or video at a time.