Google’s new “Add Me” feature lets you take photos of your friends and add them to group photos

Google’s new “Add Me” feature highlights the company’s commitment to using AI to solve common problems and improve everyday life.

For example, have you ever been assigned to take a group photo, only to be a little disappointed when you don’t end up in it? Or, in In a group photo, the person who took the photo in I would like to take a photo, but it’s not possible (probably because there is no one nearby who can take a photo for me).

“Add Me” lets you take a group photo as the photographer and be in the final shot. I had a chance to test the feature out first-hand at a recent Google press event, and I have to say it’s a solid effort from Google, although there are still a few quirks to be aware of.

Experience Google’s new “Add Me” feature

First, a female Google representative asked me to stand with a male representative in front of a black background. My first instinct as an embarrassed millennial was to put on my biggest smile and make two peace signs with both hands (it’s strange that I didn’t make a duck face), at which point the Google representative shook her head and told me to put my arms down.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Holding both hands up would be too much of a challenge for the AI ​​— the concept here is that you need to take two photos, one of the group shot and one of the photographer, and with arms waving all over the place, the AI ​​may struggle to blend the raised arms seamlessly into the final composite image without introducing unnatural distortions.

Once the “group” photo was taken, it was time to take a photo of the person taking the photo.

Here is the original “group” shot
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

According to a Google representative, the “Add Me” feature available on the new Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold smartphones is designed to instruct users on exactly where the person who took the original photo should stand. (In our case, “Add Me” guided the photo taker to stand next to a nearby plant.)

And here’s the final shot.

Final “add me” shot
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

And there you have it! If you look at the results in Add Me, you won’t notice that the woman dressed in all black (i.e., the person who took the photo) wasn’t in the original “group” photo.

The lighting in the second shot matches the original “group” photo Very goodHer right arm is neatly tucked just behind mine, just like when we first took a group photo.

Once you’ve taken your “Add Me” photo, you can share it to impress your loved ones, or you can start playing around with the Magic Editor, which also got some great AI updates this year.