How to use the Pixel 8's best technology to select your favorite faces in a group photo

How to use the Pixel 8's best technology to select your favorite faces in a group photo

There are a few things in photography you can always count on, and one is that there will always be someone blinking or making a funny face in a group photo. You can try taking 20 photos in quick succession to increase the chances that everyone will look their best in one of them, but it's not foolproof – and you'll often only get one photo you like. will be happy. But what if you could remix your group shots with the best faces from different photos in your series?

That's the principle behind Best Tech, Google Photos' new – and somewhat controversial – editing tool.

The best technology is now available on the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, but we hope it will also come to older Pixel phones in the near future. The way it works is simple. You typically take lots of shots of your group and then edit your favorite facial expressions into a frame after the fact. Sounds a little scary, and honestly it is, but it's a real lifesaver – especially if you're taking photos of kids.

Best Tech will only work with images taken in a burst of identical shots captured within a 10-second time frame. For best results, faces should be clearly visible in any of your shots and not obscured by objects or hands. Oh, and it only works with human subjects right now.

If your photos meet these criteria, follow the steps below to get started using Best Tech. I tried it on a Google Pixel 8 running Android 14 and the October 2023 security patch.

• Open Google Photos and tap the image you want to edit.
• Tap the Edit icon at the bottom of the screen.
• Tap on Tools and choose Best Tech from the options presented.
• The tool will automatically generate some options. You can audition each face it suggests by tapping on it and trying out different expressions.

If things get too complicated, you can always tap Reset to return the image to its original state.

When you're happy with your changes, tap Done to return to the main editing screen.

From here, you can continue making other edits or save a copy of your image – the original is always preserved.

The alternative faces suggested by Google Photos are automatically selected, so you can't choose which face you want to use from a given photo. You can try starting with a different photo in your series – if you're not happy with the options presented when editing a photo at the end of your sequence, use Best Take on a photo from the beginning of the series. try to do. , and you may see different options. This can also work with older images in your Google Photos library if they fit the above criteria, but in my experience, it doesn't work 100 percent of the time.

However, it works consistently with photos taken on the Pixel 8. And barring any doubt, I know I'll be using it a lot when I'm taking photos of my most irritable subject: my baby.