GoPro Labs adds more experimental features to its cameras

In May, GoPro came out with GoPro Labs, a sandbox that gave its most passionate users a chance to tinker with experimental and in-development features. The one drawback was that you could only try it out if you had a Hero8 Black, then GoPro’s flagship model. That’s changing. Today, the company is expanding support for GoPro Labs to include the recently released Hero9 Black and its older Hero7 Black and Max models.

Better yet, today’s update comes with seven new features for the owners of those action cameras to check out. Most fall into the “why didn’t they think to add these earlier?” category than the truly experimental additions. But that’s okay since they’ll be more incentive for GoPro users to try them out as a result. One of the more nifty additions is a feature that will use your GoPro’s sensors to start and stop capturing footage as it detects movement. In that way, you can forget about managing your GoPro’s battery and memory card since the camera will take care of that for you.

Another handy new feature is one-button mode. Turn it on, and you’ll only be able to start and stop capturing footage by tapping the camera’s touchscreen or buttons. That will be useful anytime you want to hand your GoPro to a friend or stranger to record something since they won’t be able to change the exposure settings you set by mistake. There are also enhancements to GoPro’s QR Code and Motion Detection features. The latter now works with all camera modes, including 360-degree capture on the GoPro Max.

If you own one of the supported models, you can try out the features by downloading and installing the GoPro Labs firmware to your device.