Hands-on: Pixel 9 Pro Fold ‘Made You Look’ feature gets kids to look at the camera

Have you ever tried taking photos of small children? Getting them to look at the camera can be a chore, to say the least. Google’s new Pixel 9 Pro Fold phone may have the solution to this problem.

Launching with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a camera feature called “Made You Look.” It’s a simple little thing that takes about five seconds to understand when you see it in action, but it’s admittedly something I’ve never seen on a smartphone before. If it works as intended, it could finally help net you some good pics of your kids to send to grandma.

Here’s how “Made You Look” works.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: ‘Made You Look’ first impressions

All the stars are here.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

I should start by mentioning that this feature is exclusive to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. You cannot do it on the regular Pixel 9 phones or any other Pixel phones because it requires the unique form factor of a foldable (e.g., the external display).

With that out of the way, here’s how it works. When you want to take a picture of a child, you can swipe over to “Made You Look” in the camera app and select from a group of four different cute little animations.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

After you make your selection, this animation actually gets displayed on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s outer display, meaning the subject of your photo can see it. One animation we saw in our demo involved a cute little cartoon fish swimming in the middle of the screen.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Google probably could have stopped there, but it went the extra mile. “Made You Look” uses AI to detect when someone is looking in the direction of the outer screen. When that happens, the animation changes, further drawing the subject’s attention towards the screen. In the case of children, it’s almost certain to make them smile. Our demo showed a bunch of cartoon characters suddenly flooding the screen.

Given that everyone present for the demo was an adult, it’s hard to say exactly how well “Made You Look” will work for children. But at least Google is trying to find a solution to an age-old problem.