In 2018, Google Arts & Culture became popular for a camera feature that compared your selfie to famous portraits to find a doppelgänger. The same capability is now available for pets.

Pet Portraits use a machine-learning algorithm which matches a snap of your furry or feathered friend against the substantial database of Google’s partner institutions. The results could be surprising, like your pet cat is a figurine from ancient Egypt. Once a doppelganger has been found, it can be shared as still images or choose a few of them to turn into a GIF slideshow.

My black-and-white kitty Tickles found a match in Antoinette Margot’s ‘Tommy’, which is in the collection of Clara Barton National Historic Site. And she also resembles ‘Cat and Plum Blossoms’ from the collection of Adachi Museum of Art. And there is a 73 per cent chance that she could be a relative of Betty Fuerst’s ‘Chalkware Cat’ which is in the collection of National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The connecting factor it seems that all of Tickles’s doppelgangers look like snobs. But then, show me a cat that’s not snobbish.

To get started, tap the rainbow camera button at the bottom of the screen on the Google Arts & Culture app. Make sure you have the latest version of the app. Either you can click a picture or choose from your phone’s gallery. The selection process takes a few seconds. On taking retakes, there were a few extra options but the similarity is uncanny… at least for me. The AI machine even works on the different poses your pet friend may strike.

In case you like Pet Portraits, on the same app try out Art Projector (see how artworks look in real size), Color Palette (find art by using the colors of your photos), Art Filter (try filters based on artifacts from museums), Art Transfer (take a photo and transform it with classic artworks) and Pocket Gallery (wander through immersive galleries and get up close to art).