If you've read our Google Pixel 8 review or Google Pixel 8 Pro review, you'll know the phones come packed with AI features, particularly for photo taking – and two of the most prominent AI tools could be about to merge.
Some digging into the Pixel Camera app code by Android Authority has revealed that the Best Take feature is set to be combined with the Top Shot feature into something new, which for now has the codename Fondue Topshot.
If we've lost you already, Best Take is a Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro option for group photos. If you've taken several snaps of a group, it builds a composite image in which the most appealing version of each face (smiling, eyes open) is combined to give you the best possible result.
As for Top Shot, it's an older feature that takes a quick burst of images before and after you hit the shutter button, and then suggests the best of the bunch. In theory, it means you can capture the perfect moment, even if you didn't actually capture the perfect moment.
Even better group photos
Considering that 'fondue' is the internal Google codename for Best Take, and 'topshot' is the actual name of Top Shot, you don't have to be the world's greatest detective to figure out where the Pixel Camera app might be going next with this.
In other words, you'll be able to choose from a selection of starting images for your group photograph (the Top Shot part), and then choose which individual shots of faces you want to overlay on top of that image (the Best Take part).
It would mean you wouldn't have to manually take several images together, as you currently need to do for Best Take. The process might even be fully automated, giving you the option of an AI-selected end result, with no manual selections required at all.
This is all speculation for now of course; even if Google's engineers are thinking about adding the feature, they could always change their minds again. But as Google continues to push AI tricks on its Pixel phones, it's something to look out for.
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