Google app finds museum doppelgängers for selfie-takers around the world
A new Google app feature took over social media this weekend as users discovered they could find their own museum painting doppelgängers via the Google Arts and Culture app.
Using the "selfie feature," users can upload photos of themselves and have Google's face-matching technology search catalogued museum collections to find "similar" looking portraits from decades of paintings. ("Similar" being used loosely.)
Social media users gleefully shared the app's best guesses as to which painting subject each person looked like, with results ranging from decently accurate to humorously bad.
The feature proved so popular, by Sunday the Google Arts & Culture app ranked at the top of both and 's free app lists.
To use the selfie feature, users will have to download the app onto their phone and give the app access to the camera. The feature is under the heading, "Is your portrait in a museum?" and the app will prompt users to take a selfie before generating a painting doppelgänger. (If you're averse to selfies, there is a : Some users discovered that you can take a photo of a picture from a different device and the feature will still work.)
The Google Arts & Culture app as a way for people to peruse artwork from over 1,000 museums, learn about specific artists or virtually tour museums around the world. The app works by creating a "faceprint" of each person's facial features, then comparing it against a database that includes over 70,000 works of art, news site Inverse .
The selfie feature is not available in all areas, however, with customers complaining in the comments of both app stores about the restriction. A Google spokesman confirmed Sunday that the feature is available across the United States with the exception of Texas and Illinois.