With billions of people inhabiting the earth, the chances of you having a doppelganger or even a close lookalike are not farfetched at all.
The mobile application Google Arts & Culture, which has been around since 2016, has played around with this idea and applied it to the vast collection of art it keeps in its database. In its recently launched feature, the app invites users to take selfies and proceeds to match it with similar portraits from museums. The results, while not always accurate, provide an amusing new way of discovering art and artists from around the world and throughout history.
For fun, Town & Country tried out the novel feature with a few of its past cover subjects and the outcome was amazing. See the best ones below:
MARGARITA FORÉS
IMAGE MARK NICDAO/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
BRUCE RICKETTS
IMAGE ROY MACAM/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE ROY MACAM/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
CRICKETTE TANTOCO
IMAGE SARA BLACK/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
ERWAN HEUSSAFF
IMAGE ROY MACAM/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE ROY MACAM/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
FRED UYTENGSU
IMAGE LILEN UY/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE LILEN UY/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
BEA VALDES
IMAGE ROY MACAM/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
BERNA ROMULO PUYAT
IMAGE SARA BLACK/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
LEN CABILI
IMAGE JOSEPH PASCUAL/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE JOSEPH PASCUAL/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
MARIA PARSONS
IMAGE MARK NICDAO/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
MARIANNA LOPEZ VARGAS
IMAGE JOSEPH PASCUAL/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE JOSEPH PASCUAL/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
MARLON STOCKINGER
IMAGE JASON QUIBILAN/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
MERLEE JAYME
IMAGE PAOLO PINEDA/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE PAOLO PINEDA/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
SOFIA ELIZALDE
IMAGE LILEN UY/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
STEPHANIE KIENLE GONZALEZ
IMAGE PAOLO PINEDA/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
We couldn’t resist trying it on members of the royal family, too. The matches were uncanny:
QUEEN ELIZABETH
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
PRINCESS DIANA
IMAGE JOHN MACINTYRE/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
KATE MIDDLETON
IMAGE RICKY WILSON/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
PRINCE WILLIAM
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
IMAGE GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
So far, the selfies have been the talk of the town, with celebrities posting hilarious matches of their own, with posts flooding Instagram feeds and trending on Twitter.
The selfie option is still in its testing phase and, in the meantime, is only available in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and parts of the U.S., so the App Store has urged users to stay tuned for further improvement and expansion. As of this writing, Google Arts & Culture holds the 12th spot on the Apple Store’s entertainment ranking, while the number of downloads has grown to almost 10 million on the Play Store. A week ago, Huffington Post reported that the app had skyrocketed to the number one position in America’s Apple app store.
Apart from the feature, the primary goal of the application is to give users the opportunity to virtually explore over 1,200 museums, galleries and institutions in over 70 countries and to encourage learning “about the events that shaped our world.” There are thousands of videos, photos and manuscripts to discover and this plethora of resources is available to all users. Download the app here for iOS users and here for Android users.
*This story originally appeared on TownandCountry.ph. Minor edits have been made by the Preview.ph editors.
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