[YotaPhone 3 Themes, Apps, and Mods] itoldusoandso:
@vevgeniev

Which GCam versions have you tried so far? Are all of them crashing? I would try first the versions for 8.1 and below.

@Yotafreak

The potential difference would be huge. Like night and day. The Yota camera app is quite bad. The image is always underexposed, colours are lacking and if it's dark, it's dark. The camera is also very slow. I found some 3rd party (paid) apps (e.g. Footej Camera and others) produce better images and shoot way faster pictures, but the images were not stabilized. The phone has good hardware and lens but the camera is not.

The difference factor would be whether Google Camera works and whether it works with Camera2API in Yota 3+. That is apparently the case so I came across this post and seems 3.2.040 works on Yota 3+. I tested on my Yota 3+ and yes it does work. So far I haven't seen any difference in quality though, but the weather isn't good to test these days, so I may have to dig further.

https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?forums[]=336&topics[]=814085&act=search&source=pst&query=camera

Here are various versions but the one mentioned above is not listed here, not sure:

https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=564748&st=0#Spoil-30881940-1

If you have Yota 3 (not 3+) I wouldn't mess with that phone. You can expect Yota 3 (Chinese release) may not work the same way as 3+. There is some talk there about that ... "And after a patch to activate it, the camera stops working altogether." On the other hand, there are mods of the Gcam that enable the GCam to work on any any phone without Camera2API. "To Use Google Camera, the smartphone should have enabled Camera2API, if not then it should be rooted but now you no need to do these things to use GCam for your low end Devices because Google Camera Go Port is available for all Smartphones without rooting, unlocking bootloader or enabling Camera2 API on them." But you still could use either the mods of Google Camera or the Camera Go Mods.

Camera Go mods (unrelated to Google Camera) question here... https://www.cyanogenmods.org/google-camera-go-apk-download/

To check your camera, you can run app called Camera2 Probe to confirm if the phone supports Camera2API to verify.

Yota 3+ ... Hardware Support Level 3

Yota 3 ... would probably say Limited

The Google Camera 3.2.040 doesn't seem to have any of the features of the GCam app in later Pixel phones... e.g.

Portrait Mode on all smartphones, on front and back both.

Night Mode

Beauty (Face Enhance) Mode

Astrophotography feature

Blur mode (object portrait)

Flash Mode

Self timer

Video Mode

Translate Mode

4K video

My objective is to replace the Yota camera app, I am not so much concerned with the additional features GCal can offer. I just want a better picture that's all.

There are also number of mods of GCam so there is a chance there are some that work...

https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/

But wait, that's not all. Here are some more .. enough testing for whole year in case the quarantine is extended.

https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-tolyan009/#apk615

And some more...

https://www.cyanogenmods.org/google-camera/

Somebody says this is working for better shots but some functions not available.

MGC_6.1.021_BSG_Arnova-based_v.1.2_TlnNeun-1.apk

That's in-line with what I see with 3.2.040 is the pictures didn't look spectacularly different and it had missing features. Since better shots is all I care about, I may give it a try.. But too many to try.. As long as it doesn't brick the phone, I am willing to test the higher versions.

If you happen to find one that has good results, I would appreciate if you could share.