Compare your selfies to fine art through the Google Arts and Culture app’s newest feature

Words by Daphne Milner, Monday 15 January 2018

Famousdoppelgangergoogleartsandcultureapp-art-news-itsnicethat-1 — The Mona Lisa

Google has just saved you hours of tedious posing for someone to paint your portrait thanks to their newest face-match feature on the Google Arts and Culture app. The multinational technology company’s app, which launched in 2016, was originally created to inspire and inform users about fine art from around the world. Its newest innovation has made the app go viral, propelling it to the most downloaded free app on the App Store in the US.

In order to find your famous museum doppelgänger, all the user has to do is take a selfie and wait for the app’s matching tool to reveal their counterpart. Through computer vision text, the app analyses what is similar about the user’s face and compares its findings to the company’s catalogue of artworks shared with Google by museums and galleries from around the world.

The hilarious results the app has yielded have been shared by celebrities like Pete Wentz and Busy Philips on their social media accounts. But the feature is also informative. The title of the artwork, its artist and the collection it’s from appearing on the screen when the user taps on their masterpiece match. The app also gives the user the option to learn more by clicking “View Artwork,” which shows the full painting as well as additional details like the date it was created and the type of painting it is.

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