Google Arts & Culture

The Google Arts and Culture application is the type of application people who are curious about the cultures of the world dream of. To start off the design is in balance with a clear color background and minimal text regarding categories and article titles. Users can easily navigate the main sections of the app from the bottom tab. The app can also be used in various ways whether consuming information from the content provided which ranges from classical artworks articles on historical figures, science as well as a range of other topics. The app can be used to create content by way of galleries the user constructs. The app can even be seen as a observational lens through use of Virtual Reality and Selfies. A short review can’t do this application justice. It is well worth a download just for the ability to enrich your imagination.

I'm not sure why people are writing reviews, saying that the selfie option doesn't work, because it worked perfectly fine for me. It took me two seconds to scroll down the home page, find the selfie option, read about how it is new and experimental, take a selfie, and find pieces that resembled me. Maybe it only works on certain devices, but as the owner of an iPhone 6, I assure you, the selfie option works phenomenally. Also, there are countless informational texts and articles regarding art(ists). This app is amazing and I 10/10 recommend!

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Excellent app in theory however the programming needs a lot of work. Very poor in app functionality such as moving smoothly between images and back to previous menu pages, landscape view is off, when zooming into images you are then unable to continue scrolling to next image without first returning to previous page. Also, many artist pieces are missing. I scrolled through all of the Surrealism pieces looking for Salvador Dali and did not find a single piece by him. Then when I go to Dali’s page on your app, there are barely any of most famous pieces. That is the case for many artists offered on this app. Another example would be Hieronymous Bosch. If these things were all corrected, you would have an excellent app and I will happily change my rating.

Echoing what many have said about the location restriction on the selfie feature. I can understand Google didn’t expect the selfie feature to go viral and were thus unprepared. However, the limited access was not clearly communicated and the fact that it seems the coastal cities got access and middle America did not seems misguided. Overall, like the way the app allows you to interact with art and exposes you to art you’re not familiar with. The UI and overall experience seems on par with Google’s other great products. One last point of feedback would be to incorporate even smaller art institutions. I live in Chicago and the many diverse art institutions of the city are not well represented.

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The app should have come with a notification that the “Is Your Portrait In A Museum” feature is only available in some states. I can’t believe it’s not available in Texas, and apparently not in Illinois either! Think of all the kids who are missing out on this great chance to get connected with Art History through a trending tech app. And for what? Because Google doesn’t want to be the boogeyman about scanning people’s face biometrics? Sad. Look, people are only scared of that when info gets kept secretly, or when things aren’t disclosed. Ironically, by not letting users in Texas and Illinois know that that feature isn’t available upfront, they’re promoting a technological paranoia. This works against everything they’re trying to do, and wastes everyone’s time (like mine, writing this review.)