Google Camera vs VLC
When comparing Google Camera vs VLC, the Slant community recommends VLC for most people. In the question“What are the best android photosphere apps? ” VLC is ranked 1st while Google Camera is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose VLC is:
VLC is licensed under the CC-SA v3.0+ and available on Windows, OSX, and Linux with source code available [here](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html).
Specs
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Pros
Pro HDR mode
HDR can be activated or deactivated with one swipe of the thumb.
Pro Photo Sphere
Use Photo Sphere and Google Camera to create three hundred and sixty degree panoramic photos easily. Photo Sphere photo images allow the viewer to move around within the world you have created, move up, down, left or right to see everything. Photo Sphere also gives you the tools to create your own Google Maps street view and share it with other Maps users.
Pro Lens Blur
A recently added feature to Google Camera, Lens Blur gives you the SLR like function of creating images with shallow depth of field, or limited areas of focus. Basically, lens blur will only blur the background in order to put more emphasis on an object.
Pro Simple clean interface
Google Camera has a very easy to use and simple interface, with the most important controls right at your fingertips. Google has redesigned the Camera app for every skill level of user, making photography more accessible to everyone.
Pro It is free
It's free if you have one of the supporting devices (Google Nexus or Pixel).
Pro Support panorama shots
Which is also supported by the Android stock camera.
Pro Free, open source, and cross-platform
VLC is licensed under the CC-SA v3.0+ and available on Windows, OSX, and Linux with source code available here.
Pro Simple to setup and use
VLC is an incredibly robust application but very simple on the surface. It makes playing music simple, yet still manages to give the user all the tools he/she wants in a music player.
Pro Very versatile and easy to use
Pro Doesn't require additional codecs
Everything VLC needs to play media files is contained within which means no outside codecs are needed. This makes it one of the most hassle-free music players as it can play virtually anything as soon as it's installed.
Pro Tons of advanced settings
Besides basic configurations, video player has an extensive amount of adjustable settings.
Pro Doesn't manage your music library for you
You organize your music into folders any way you want. Want to play an album? Drag and drop. No tags, no confusion, no fluff. Easy.
Pro Can be almost completely keyboard-driven
VLC includes keyboard shortcuts for most actions. The video player can be controlled with simple and customizable keyboard commands.
Pro Surprisingly Lightest on Resources
Yes. Lightest. Even better than the ones known to be light. Both when playing music, only a single song or when playing a video. Either in terms of Ram and Cpu. Compared with almost all, including the ones from Windows like mpc-hc .. or light ones from Linux like Alsa Player, Audacious, SmPlayer .
Pro Can play every format video available (as of 2017)
Pro Supports a GUI interface and an ncurses terminal interface
Pro Can easily stream music across your home network from any device on the network
Using sftp/ssh music (and videos) can be streamed from any server on the network to any device running VLC. VLC can also be used as a webcam for streaming and snapshots. Amazing all in one package
Pro Large amount of extensions
VLC has a large amount of extensions.
Cons
Con Requires Android 4.4+ (KitKat)
The Google Camera app system requirements do require Android 4.4 (KitKat) or better, as a result this does leave out a lot of older phones and tablets. The app does take advantage of features of higher end phones, so you will need to upgrade if your device has an older version of Android.
Con Limited device support - Only available for Google Nexus and Pixel
In 2016 they stop providing Google camera for non google devices. You can download APK and install. But it crashes and most likely the video camera will not work.
Con Photo Sphere does not work on all CPUs
For example, Android-Lenny 4.4 does not support this.
Con Not really meant to be a music player
VLC is made to be a video player. Therefore, it won't carry out actions such as managing your music library.
Con Lacks libraries and advanced music player features
VLC is a media player first and foremost. There is no library management (aside from playlists), limited usage of tags, and no rating system. VLC is best at playing a file directly from a folder, but falls behind when it comes to helping you manage or find good songs in your music library.
Con Absence of personalization
VLC Player has only one basic interface in white or black, and overall personalization opportunities are quite narrow. Unfortunately, you're pretty much stuck to the default look.
Con Contains some insignificant but irritating flaws
Despite all keyboard shortcuts, the width of the picture can't be controlled by trackpad. Besides that, the VLC start-up window doesn’t open at the same place or the same width at which it was previously closed.