Google Arts & Culture App Can Match Your Selfie to Fine Art

Google has a fun new way to get people interested in fine arts.

The Web giant has added a "new and experimental" feature to its Google Arts & Culture app, which will match your selfie with a museum portrait.

To try it for yourself, download the app for iOS or Android, and scroll down until you see the heading "Is your portrait in a museum?" Then, press "Get Started" and use the camera in the app to snap a selfie. Google uses computer vision technology to compare your selfie to thousands of historical artworks provided by its partner museums to see if any look like you.

"When you take a photo with this feature, your photo is sent to Google to find artworks that look like you," Google explains in the app. The Web giant says it "won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches."

When I tried the app on Monday morning, Google spit out several different portraits that vaguely resembled me, showing a percentage match for each one. According to Google's computer vision technology, my photo most closely resembled the 1876 paining "A Neapolitan Woman" by Friedrich Dürck.

You can re-take your selfie as many times as you like, and you may get different results when you try different angles.

Check out some of the results other people have gotten below.

Hey this one ain't so bad. pic.twitter.com/er0FxZNVO8 — Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) January 13, 2018

She does have a Roman nose.
A post shared by mayim bialik (@missmayim) on Jan 14, 2018 at 2:33pm PST

I've taken like 20 selfies with the Google arts & culture app and gotten this horrifying guy as my top result EVERY SINGLE TIME, who do I sue pic.twitter.com/PjuvT0IXIU — Caroline Wazer (@CarolineWazer) January 13, 2018

That was not very nice, @googlearts pic.twitter.com/4JOiAx3vKW — Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) January 15, 2018

Even nailed my wardrobe. #GoogleArts pic.twitter.com/SFRkh0oTKG — Tyler Everitt (@TylerEveritt) January 14, 2018

The Google Arts & Culture app features thousands of photos, videos, manuscripts, and artworks from more than 1,200 international museums and galleries from 70 countries. You can browse curated collections, save your favorites, and share them with your friends.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

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Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app.

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth.

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