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iPhone XR gets Portrait mode for pets and objects in Halide v1.11

By Brittany Roston/

Unlike the iPhone XS and XS Max, the new iPhone XR features a single rear camera. Despite this hardware difference, the LCD model supports depth capture in the form of Portrait mode, but there's a notable difference: it only works on human subjects. Camera app Halide's developers, however, have brought that same functionality to pets and objects, they've revealed.

A tease of the newly discovered feature was published on Reddit over the weekend, where a Halide developer explained that they'd discovered depth data that allowed them to use Portrait mode on an image of a cat. The same was true for an object of a can on a desk, indicating the third-party camera app can give iPhone XR users functionality not present in the stock app.

There are some "catches" involved, Halide has explained both on Reddit and in a newly published blog post. The expanded Portrait mode is described as "temperamental" at times, requiring a certain amount of depth data variance to work. As well, the iPhone XR's depth data has a lower resolution than the iPhone XS models.

Halide's team is bringing the ability to the iPhone XR in Halide v1.11. It's not perfect, the company explained in a blog post, due the lower quality data provided in the absence of dual-camera hardware. Despite that, images of non-humans taken with the feature show a nicely blurred background alongside a sharp foreground.

iPhone XR users aren't able to preview the blur effect, however, nor can they automatically detect people with this new tool. "Unfortunately, the iPhone XR does not stream depth data in realtime, so we can't do a portrait preview," the company explained. The updated Halide app has already been submitted to the App Store and should be live soon.

SOURCE: Halide

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