If your social media profile snaps need a refresh in 2024, Google just released a new AI-powered tool that will help you take some selfies with a historical twist.
Art Selfie 2, found in the Google Arts & Culture app for iOS and Androidis a new twist on Google’s original feature, which launched in 2018 to help you find your art history look-alikes.
This new version instead uses (obviously) generative AI to edit your selfie snap and put you in the choice of a historical or artistic moment. The list of 27 options covers everything from Woodstock Festival to Gaucho and Rousseau’s Jungle, across subgenres in art, history and travel.
This isn’t something we haven’t seen in apps like Lensa, but it’s completely free and very easy to use. While you wait for your image to be generated (which takes about ten seconds), read up on the historical significance of your chosen theme so you have an educational excuse to give it a spin.
Unfortunately, Art Selfie 2 isn’t yet available for your pets, with the Arts & Culture app only offering you the original Art Selfie option (in the Pet Portraits section) to help you find the perfect match for your art history cat. For now, Sheba will have to look on enviously at your selfie in Italian Renaissance style.
How to take an art selfie?
The Art Selfie 2 feature is now available in the Google Arts & Culture app download now for Android And for iOS.
Once you have the app, go to the Playback section in the bottom menu, choose Art Selfie 2and then Take a selfie (once you enable the app to use your camera). You can take this photo alone or with friends.
You can change the photo by clicking the ‘Retake’ button, but once you’re happy just scroll down to see the different AI styles. Tap any of these to generate the image and view a description of the historic moment or painting.
Not satisfied with the results? You can click the Refresh button at the top right corner to generate a new version. Once you get the hang of the app, you can share it directly on social media or download it to your camera roll.
The rest of the Arts & Culture app is also definitely worth exploring. We even named it last year as one of the seven unsung Google apps and tools we love, alongside Google Family Link, Google Scholar, Google Flights, and more.