Photos

Glassly Miniapp SDK betaThe SDK is in beta, so its APIs may change before general availability.Developing on Mentra Live? We recommend using the Glassly Bluetooth SDK.The developer tools are available in the Glassly App under Settings → Miniapp Developer Settings.Share feedback with an in-app bug report, on Discord, or by email at [email protected].

session.camera.takePhoto captures a still on glasses that have a camera, like Mentra Live. It resolves after the photo is captured and uploaded, and hands you back a download URL.

src/background/index.ts

import { registerMiniapp } from "@glassly/miniapp/background";

registerMiniapp((session) => {
  session.input.onButtonPress(async () => {
    if (!session.capabilities?.hasCamera) return;
    const photo = await session.camera.takePhoto();
    session.display.render([{type: "image", id: "photo", box: {x: 144, y: 44, w: 288, h: 200}, data: photo.photoUrl}]);
  });
});

Camera needs the CAMERA permission and glasses with a camera. Declare a CAMERA permission in your manifest so the call is allowed, and a CAMERA hardware requirement so the miniapp only installs on glasses that can capture. Check session.capabilities.hasCamera before calling so you don’t fire a request the glasses can’t satisfy.

Take a photo

takePhoto sends the request, waits while the glasses capture and the phone uploads, then resolves with the photo metadata. The returned photoUrl is a signed download URL with a short TTL (about 30 minutes), so fetch or display it soon after.

const photo = await session.camera.takePhoto({ size: "high", sound: false });
// photo.photoUrl: signed URL, ~30 min TTL
// photo.mimeType: e.g. "image/jpeg"
// photo.size: bytes

All options are optional. The defaults are listed below.

Option	Type	Default	What it does
`size`	`"low" \| "medium" \| "high" \| "max"`	`"medium"`	Capture resolution.
`mode`	`"photo" \| "text"`	`"photo"`	`"text"` captures at maximum source quality and optimizes BLE delivery for readable text.
`transferMethod`	`"auto" \| "direct" \| "ble"`	`"auto"`	Use `"direct"` for webhook upload without BLE fallback, or `"ble"` to always relay through the phone.
`compress`	`"none" \| "low" \| "medium" \| "high"`	`"none"`	JPEG compression applied before upload.
`sound`	`boolean`	`true`	Play a shutter sound on the glasses.
`saveToGallery`	`boolean`	`false`	Keep a copy in the glasses gallery.
`exposureTimeNs`	`number`	auto	Manual shutter time in nanoseconds. Honored only on cameras with manual exposure; ignored otherwise. Omit to auto-expose.
`timeoutMs`	`number`	60s	Overrides the request timeout for this capture. Useful when you’d rather abandon a slow capture quickly than wait the full default.

Unknown runtime transferMethod values are rejected instead of being treated as "auto". A handful of finer-grained exposure knobs (iso, aeExposureDivisor, isoCap, noiseReduction, edgeEnhancement, zsl, mfnr, ispDigitalGain, ispAnalogGain) are also accepted for cameras with manual exposure support. They only apply once exposureTimeNs puts the camera in manual mode; most miniapps can leave them unset. The result is a PhotoTaken:

Field	Type	Description
`requestId`	`string`	Correlates the request with ASG status and upload logs.
`photoUrl`	`string`	Signed download URL for the captured image (~30 min TTL).
`mimeType`	`string`	MIME type of the image, e.g. `"image/jpeg"`.
`size`	`number`	Image size in bytes.

Field of view

setFov applies a temporary FOV/ROI override owned by the calling miniapp and resolves after the ASG client reports it was applied. It applies to all captures (photos and video) while that miniapp is active. When the miniapp closes, the host restores the previous live miniapp override or the persistent base setting. The factory/missing base is the centered standard preset (102 degrees); existing saved user values are preserved.

// A named preset. The simplest option, always center ROI.
await session.camera.setFov({ preset: "wide" });

// Or an explicit horizontal FOV with a region.
await session.camera.setFov({ fov: 102, roiPosition: "bottom" });

The argument is one of two shapes:

Field	Type	Notes
`preset`	`"narrow" \| "standard" \| "wide"`	Named preset. Uses center ROI. Mutually exclusive with `fov`/`roiPosition`.
`fov`	`number`	Horizontal FOV in degrees. Pair with `roiPosition`.
`roiPosition`	`"center" \| "bottom" \| "top"`	Region position for the `fov` form. Defaults to `"center"`.

It resolves with a CameraFovResult:

Field	Type	Description
`requestId`	`string`	Correlates the request with ASG logs.
`fov`	`number`	The applied horizontal FOV in degrees.
`roiPosition`	`"center" \| "bottom" \| "top"`	The applied region position.
`timestamp`	`number`	When the setting was applied.

Warming up the camera

warmUp pre-warms the glasses camera so the next takePhoto is near-instant. Warm with the same size you plan to capture with; a mismatched size forces the camera to reconfigure and loses the speedup.

await session.camera.warmUp({ size: "high" });
// … later, near-instant capture …
const photo = await session.camera.takePhoto({ size: "high" });

Option	Type	Default	What it does
`size`	`"low" \| "medium" \| "high" \| "max"`	`"medium"`	Must match the capture you’re warming up for.
`mode`	`"photo" \| "text"`	`"photo"`	Match the upcoming capture mode.
`exposureTimeNs`	`number`	auto	Same manual-exposure override as `takePhoto`.
`durationMs`	`number`	15000	How long the camera stays warm. Call `warmUp` again to extend it. Capped at 60000.

The camera stays warm for durationMs, and the host releases the warm-up lease automatically when the miniapp closes. Warm-ups are serialized: only one runs at a time, and none may start while a photo is being captured. If the camera is busy, warmUp rejects with camera_busy; retry shortly, or just call takePhoto directly since it works regardless, only slower.

Errors

Every method returns a promise that rejects with { code, message } on failure. Wrap calls in try/catch and read code.

Code	When
`PERMISSION_NOT_DECLARED`	The miniapp didn’t declare the `CAMERA` permission.
`REQUEST_ABORTED`	The request timed out, or the session was torn down before it completed.
`INTERNAL`	The phone-side handler threw. The glasses have no camera, capture or upload failed, or another device error occurred. Read `message`.

try {
  const photo = await session.camera.takePhoto();
  session.display.render([{type: "image", id: "photo", box: {x: 144, y: 44, w: 288, h: 200}, data: photo.photoUrl}]);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.code === "PERMISSION_NOT_DECLARED") {
    session.display.render([
      {type: "text", id: "msg", box: {x: 0, y: 0, w: 576, h: 288}, text: "Camera permission not granted"},
    ]);
  }
}

For video, see Videos. For live video streaming, see Streaming.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

UI Layer

Display

Audio & Speech

Sensors & Input

Camera

Phone & System

Data

Reference

Take a photo

Field of view

Warming up the camera

Errors

​Take a photo

​Field of view

​Warming up the camera

​Errors

Take a photo

Field of view

Warming up the camera

Errors