Feet for Virtual Shopping: What Google Is Looking For

Highlights

• Functionality: Google allows users to virtually try on shoes by uploading a full-length photo.
• Requirements: For optimal results, photos should be taken standing with good lighting and a simple background.
• Data Privacy: Google does not collect or store biometric data from uploaded photos.
• AI Assistant: Google’s AI enhances the virtual shopping experience by responding to specific style queries.

Google started letting you try on clothes from the comfort of your home by uploading a photo and letting AI take care of the rest – and if you’re in the US, you can now do the same thing with shoes. Fortunately, the process isn’t nearly as creepy as Google needing a close-up of your bare feet. Rather, when you’re browsing shoes, you tap the pair you want to try on and upload a full-length photo of yourself in any old outfit.

Google will then swap out whatever shoes you’re wearing in the original photo for the ones you’re interested in buying, so you can see how they look with a particular outfit. For the best results, it is recommended that you stick to solo photos in which you’re standing upright, with good lighting and a background that isn’t too busy. Your clothing shouldn’t be too baggy either. And naturally, Google warns to only use photos of yourself or those you have permission to use from someone else. It won’t accept photos of children, either.

Google points out that the image it generates is designed to help you see how an item might look but doesn’t guarantee that it’ll actually fit you in real life. It’s an approximation, then, rather than an image that perfectly takes into account your body shape and personal features. This is probably more of a catch when you’re shopping for clothes than shoes, though. Just don’t walk into a store and blame Google when the sneakers you tried on virtually aren’t manufactured in your real-world size.

Google says that no biometric data from the photo you upload is collected or stored, nor will it use the image for training purposes. It won’t share it with other Google apps or third parties either, but you can delete both the original photo and any generated images if you’d rather not let it hang onto them.

Google has been gradually enhancing the capabilities of its AI as a virtual shopping assistant. When you use AI Mode to help you find a particular item now, such as a pair of jeans, you can make more specific queries about their style and ask follow-up questions to the chatbot to narrow down the visual results further.