You’ve probably seen a lot of incredibly edited, relentlessly photoshopped photos all over Instagram , and wondered if you’ll ever achieve that incredible level of perfection. The truth is, many photos online are edited, and some smartphone cameras enable some kind of filter or smoothing by default . Through its Digital Wellbeing initiative , Google has created a framework for scrutiny and transparency around selfie filters . This is intended to help respect “ personal choices about facial retouching on smartphones ,” the company said.
Google found from multiple studies and interviews with child and mental health experts that when someone is unaware that a camera or photo app has applied a filter, the images can negatively impact mental well-being
"These default filters can quietly establish a beauty standard that some people compare themselves to," product manager Vinit Modi in a blog post.
Phones like Samsung 's Galaxy flagships and even Google's Pixels have built automatic selfie retouching into their camera apps, but sometimes it can take a lot of steps to find, disable, or enable them . With its new approach, Google wants to make it clearer whether a photo you take has an effect enabled.
This feature will start rolling out to the Pixel 4a. Face retouching is disabled by default, and an upcoming update will use more neutral language and symbols for these tools, as opposed to words like “beautify” or “perfect.” One of these changes, for example, has the label “subtle” instead of “natural,” which sends the wrong message that a lightly edited image is “natural.”.
Also, if you decide to use a tool , "you'll see more information about how each setting is applied and what it changes to your image," Modi said.
This set of guidelines isn't something Google wants to use just with its own products – it's looking to convince other companies to do the same.
“Substantial change requires a collective effort, across a broad ecosystem of apps and devices,” Modi wrote, adding that Google partners have shared feedback from their own customers that echoes what the research.
Modi called Snapchat "an app that shares their beliefs," adding that the app's default camera experience is unfiltered and offers a choice of lenses that give effects to your face.
Google also noted that Snapchat's Lens Studio tool for creating filters uses value-neutral tags and that it is "committed to continuing to make improvements in this area."
People have been asking for photos that have been edited to be marked so that users don't believe that "false" images are representative of reality. We haven't yet seen platforms like Instagram comment on the possibility of such a feature. For now, Google's effort to encourage transparency in selfies is a good first step.
