The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023–2024
Google's Best Take blends the best faces from burst group photos into one shot
Born from the 'group shot dilemma', Best Take merges the best expressions from similar photos into one image — launched with Pixel 8, October 2023.
What it had to solve
User research at Google found a universal pain: in group photos someone always blinks or looks away. Teams from Google Photos, Pixel and Google Research gathered at a week-long summit to solve what they named the 'group shot dilemma'.
How it works
Before the Pixel 8 launched in October 2023, Google researchers identified what they called the 'group shot dilemma': in any family photo, someone blinks, looks away, or pulls a face, so the perfect shot never exists. A week-long summit brought together teams from Google Photos, Pixel and Google Research to solve it.
Their answer, Best Take, is a Google Photos editing tool that reads a burst of similar photos taken within seconds, checks timestamps, head poses and expressions, and offers each person's best-looking face. The photographer can keep the automatic suggestion or pick a different expression for anyone in the frame, and blending tech adapted from Magic Eraser and Cinematic photos makes the swap seamless.
The design rested on an observation about behavior: people already shoot multiple versions of a group photo. Because the faces come from the same moment, the composite 'feels true to their memory', as product manager Lillian Chen put it — the feature balances authenticity with helpfulness.
Best Take launched on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro on October 12, 2023, and reviewers immediately saw both sides: The Verge called it 'somewhat controversial' and also a 'real lifesaver' for photographing children. The feature made AI-driven face swapping a routine consumer tool and moved the camera phone debate from whether it could be done to whether it should.
Why it lands
- The teams started from observed behavior — people already take several group shots — instead of inventing a new habit.
- Drawing faces from the same few seconds kept the result faithful to the actual moment, avoiding the uncanny feel of staged composites.
- Giving the user per-person control respected agency over memories; the tool suggested, the owner decided.
- It converted a frustration people accepted into a reason to upgrade — a camera feature that solves a universal, felt problem.
What it did
It turned an age-old camera annoyance into a one-tap edit and made AI face-swapping a mainstream consumer feature; reviewers called it a 'real lifesaver' for photographing kids, even as it opened the debate about whether a photo is a record or a remix.
What you can take
When every user already works around a flaw — taking five shots to get one good one — the product should automate the workaround; the best feature is the behavior people already have, made instant.
Since then
Best Take shipped with Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro on October 12, 2023, and Google kept folding similar AI editing into Google Photos; Magic Editor, announced alongside it, went on to do generative rearranging of whole scenes. The Verge's walkthrough treated Best Take as a headline Pixel 8 feature, and the debate it opened — whether blended faces make a photo better or less honest — followed every AI photo tool that came after. Google described the product philosophy plainly: the composite feels true to memory because the source frames are the same moment.
Sources
- 4 new Google Photos features on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro
- How Best Take makes your group photos better
- How to use the Pixel 8's Best Take to pick your favorite faces in group photos
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