This free app finds museum portraits that look like you

Isn’t technology fascinating? It feels like just yesterday, the biggest invention was the colorful iMac G3. But now that it’s 2018, apps exist that compare your face to museum portraits. And after testing the aforementioned app, it’s pretty on-the-nose.

The best part of the app is that it doesn’t just compare your mug to a famous painting. It also educates you about art and helps you explore your community to find ways to embrace both art and culture. So it’s fitting that the app is named — you guessed it — Google Arts & Culture.

Being able to take a selfie was included in the app’s last update — but, according to them, it’s only available in select locations only. So even if you manage to download it and find that you’re not included in the museum portraits feature, it’s still a pretty decent app to have. (And honestly, since this feature is making waves, it may very well become a permanent part of the app itself.)

Here’s how to get started, since it can be a little complicated to find. After downloading the app, you’ll see a feed of articles focusing on topics ranging from fine art, photography, and even science on occasion. This is the curated “daily digest.”

If you keep scrolling, you should see something that looks like this:

After clicking on that, you’ll need to make sure the app can access your camera. From there, all you need to do is snap a photo. For the record, it appears as if you can’t upload one right from your photo roll.

Almost immediately, you’ll get results.

As you can see, it gives you a few portraits that it thinks might resemble you, as well as a percentage.

The app has a good amount of range. For example, it’ll recognize a baby’s face (even if it may not give a result that’s also a baby — like that second suggestion.)

But unfortunately, you’ll probably get a “no match” notification if you happen to take a photo of, say, your dog who looks a little bummed that he woke up from a nap for “research” like this.

Is it worth downloading? Of course. Not only do we love comparisons like this, but we love learning. And this app is all about learning and experiencing the culture that’s around you.