When Digital Wellbeing was launched, it was initially used to manage how often people use their phones. However, it is widely applied to other aspects of life and technology. Google is now bringing Digital Wellbeing to the concept of face retouching in camera and photography apps, starting with the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G.
According to Google, more than 70% of photos on Android use the front camera, while 24 billion photos have been tagged as selfies in Google Photos. This clear trend coincides with the popularity of filters.
We set out to better understand the effect that filtered selfies can have on people’s well-being, especially when filters are turned on by default. We conducted several studies and spoke with child and mental health experts around the world, and found that when you don’t know that a camera or photo app has applied a filter, photos can negatively affect mental well-being.
After investigating how “default filters can quietly set a beauty standard that some people compare themselves to,” Google created “human-centric guidelines,” not yet live, focused on facial retouching.
That is, they should be disabled by default and users should have maximum control over whether face retouching is enabled. When enabled, they should be clearly labeled, while the controls around the feature shouldn’t be associated with “beauty.” This means that the icons and language are “value neutral” to give you the opportunity to “decide what the retouch means”.
The Google Camera app on Pixel devices is the first to apply these principles. Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 will have face retouching disabled by default, while an upcoming update will introduce those “worthless descriptive icons and labels.” Finally, there will be panels on “how each setting is applied and what changes it makes to your image.
FTC: We use income generating automobile affiliate links. Plus.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
