India, Jan. 21 -- Open your photo gallery and scroll back a few years. You may notice something missing. Despite carrying a phone with three cameras, most people rarely use one of them. Smartphone makers keep adding more cameras, but many users may not need all of them. The third lens on the back of most phones, often the ultrawide camera, looks useful on paper. In daily use, it often sits idle.

This question came up while going through years of stored photos. Among thousands of images, very few came from an ultrawide camera. That discovery raises a simple point: if people rarely use a feature, does it deserve space on a phone?

Most smartphones now ship with at least two rear cameras. One serves as the main camera, while the other offer...