Never miss out on a group photo again, with Google Pixel 9’s ‘Add Me’ AI feature

Google’s Pixel 9 phones have an interesting new feature called “Add Me,” which lets you create real-time composites in-camera-phone. At first, I thought it was like the effect in the movie Back to the Future, where the people start to fade from the photographs. But actually, it’s the reverse of this.

Basically, the Add Me feature lets you take a photo of a couple of people, and then the person holding the phone can swap with them and be in the photo as well. Or, presumably, you could take photos on separate days and combine the photos afterwards, making it look like everyone was there at the same time.

It’s a little like those good old Photoshop composites. However, it’s all done with AI and requires zero expertise in photo editing, photography, or image manipulation.

“Forget about selfie sticks or needing a helpful stranger,” says the blurb on the website. “Add Me can seamlessly merge two photos into one amazing image. It combines true-to-the-moment photography with the power of AI and augmented reality, so everyone who was there can be in your pictures.”

And perhaps this is preferable to taking a selfie. Selfie sticks have become their own scourge in some overly touristed parts of the world, and who wants to hand over their $1000+ phone to a complete stranger these days?

To use Add Me, all you need to do is:

1. Drop a grand and buy a Google Pixel 9
2. Take a group photo.
3. Switch places with someone else who was in the picture. 
4. Have the second photographer tell you where you should stand in the photo based on the directions in the viewfinder.
5. Have the second photographer take another picture.
6. Use Add Me to seamlessly stitch together both takes, using AI and augmented reality. 

Senior product marketing manager for Google Pixel Camera Sebastian Rodriguez is himself a keen photographer. He laments how many photos of his family there are without him in any of them. “Go through my house,” he says. I barely show up in any of our family photos.”

It’s a common problem that many of us ‘designated photographers’ have. I remember my father setting up a tripod and using the timer, then running madly into the family group photos he’d painstakingly set up. Of course, this was the 80s and the days of film. There was no chimping at the LCD screen to make sure he’d got the shot.

Selfie accidents and deaths are on the rise and were declared a public emergency after several deaths occurred. Perhaps this new feature is a welcome antidote to selfies, and more of us can be present in photographs finally.