How to use Google's mega-hit viral app, which compares your selfies to famous works of art

In case you missed them above, here are the links directly:

Google Arts & Culture on Google Play

Google Arts & Culture on Apple's App Store

The Google Arts & Culture app works on a wide variety of iPhone and Android phone, as well as other iOS and Android devices. It's free, and easy to find through search on Google Play and Apple's App Store.

It's as simple as scrolling down until you see the "Is your portrait in a museum?" box.

When I first opened the app, I didn't really know what to do or where to go. Since the Google Arts & Culture app isn't dedicated solely to comparing selfies with art, there's a bunch of other stuff to sift through to get to the new function.

I opened the menu on the left, which is full of stuff but doesn't have a "take selfie" option. I closed the menu, and returned to the main "feed" of the app — a scrollable main content area laid out vertically. After scrolling past a few different featured stories, the white box surrounded by portraits appeared. Aha!

To note: While people in other countries can download the Google Arts & Culture app, this feature is exclusive to the US for now.

As you can see here, though Google receives any selfies you take through the app, the company promises it's only holding onto the image for a limited time — the duration of the time the app takes to match your face with a portrait.

Since I'm an adult and a professional, I make really adult, professional faces when I'm taking selfies.

As you can see here, the main interface of the Google Arts & Culture selfie comparison tool is a selfie camera. You line up your face inside the boxed area and snap a photo. Easy!

You can tell the app is analyzing your face because of the various colored lines animating all over the screen, and because it's gone black and white.

In all seriousness, the processing time is minimal and there's a hilarious moment of suspense as you wait for the app to tell you which art work your face most closely resembles. Perhaps I'd be compared to a self-portrait by Van Gogh! Or maybe a royal guard in the background of a glorious Goya painting!

Sure! 

As you may have already noticed, the app doesn't just identify portraits that you resemble, but it also identifies how much you resemble them. There's a percentage with each comparison.

If you live somewhere that doesn't have access to the feature just yet, a good way to stay aware of when it's coming your way is by following the Google Arts & Culture account on Twitter.