Google Arts & Culture is an app that grants users access to the collections, stories, and knowledge of more than 2,000 cultural institutions from around the globe, spanning 80 countries. It offers a rich exploration of our cultural heritage, including historical movements such as women's suffrage, performing arts like the Paris Opera, and NASA's stunning image archives. Through this platform, users can delve into the art, history, people, and marvels that define our world, making it a digital gateway to global culture.
The app features a variety of innovative tools designed to enhance the exploration experience. For example, Art Transfer allows users to take a photo and transform it with elements from classic artworks, while Art Selfie helps identify portraits that resemble the user. The Color Palette feature enables finding artworks based on dominant colors in a photo, and Art Projector shows how artworks appear in real size. Users can also wander through immersive virtual galleries using Pocket Gallery, explore high-definition images with Art Camera, and experience culture in 360-degree videos and virtual reality tours, as if stepping inside world-class museums.
Additional features include Street View for touring famous sites and landmarks virtually, and Explore by time and color to travel through different periods and see the spectrum of art colors. The Art Recogniser function lets users point their device camera at artworks to learn more about them—even offline at select museums—making it easier to gain knowledge about art pieces on the go. The app also provides curated exhibits, bookmarks favorites for easy access, and helps locate nearby museums and exhibitions. Users can subscribe to notifications for updates and highlights, and translate exhibit descriptions into their preferred language, broadening accessibility.
To support its functionalities, the app requires certain permissions. It uses location data to recommend nearby cultural sites and events, and the camera to recognize artworks and provide additional information. The app also accesses user contacts to facilitate signing in with Google accounts, enabling users to save and manage their favorites. Storage permission is necessary for offline access to recognized artworks and related content, ensuring users can explore cultural treasures even without an internet connection. Overall, Google Arts & Culture combines education, exploration, and interactive features to make art and cultural heritage accessible and engaging for everyone.