But First, Let Me Take A Selfie

Google adds new selfie feature to their long-standing app that combines fun with learning.

The Google Arts & Culture app is essentially helping us all become Dorian Gray. While the never-aging antagonist in Oscar Wilde’s philosophical novel watched helplessly as his self-portrait morphed into a monster – that seemed to be the general feeling we had at the office when we tried the new Google app feature.

While for the most part, our five matches were fairly similar, there was always that one or two that made us furrow our brows and ask, “Really?! I don’t look like that!” It’s almost as if Google is keeping us in check from becoming too conceited in our selfie game. Not everyone is going to match with The Birth of Venus, but we’d like to at least think we’re better than the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

For those unfamiliar with the app, Google’s goal is to explore art collections from around the world through the application. Users can explore artwork from more than 1,000 museums worldwide, as well as travel through them using Google Street View. Want to visit the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan? How about the Machu Picchu in Andes Mountains, Peru? These are all wonderful capabilities that hopefully will pique people’s interest, though unfortunately, it’s the selfie feature that has got people finally downloading the program.

The art selfies are pretty entertaining and plenty of celebrities are sharing their matches on social media. Once you get celebrities on board, it’s basically like free advertising. While most of the results entail sarcastic responses from the likes of Kristen Bell and Kelly Ripa, there’s something intriguing about seeing if your facial features match with famous works of art. Among the latest are Kate Hudson, Sarah Silverman, Kumail Nanjiani and Jake Tapper.

This got our team wondering if our mugs are in museums as well – so this morning we took some selfies with the app. After a few of us adamantly denied the application was working – we ended up with some really fun results. See for yourself below!