Group photo face match: who looks most alike?

The face model looks for every face in your photo. If it finds more than eight, it keeps the eight largest, since those are usually the people in front and the clearest to measure. Each face appears as a thumbnail, and you can add a name to each one.

When you press Rank our group, the tool scores every pair. Four people make 6 pairs. Six people make 15. Eight people make 28. Each pair gets the same fun score as the two-photo test: 40% mood match, 35% proportion match and 25% face resemblance, scaled to 55 to 100. Then the pairs are sorted from highest to lowest.

Nothing is random. The same group photo with the same faces always gives the same ranking.

Above the full list, three pairs get a special title. They often go to different pairs, which makes for good arguments in the group chat.

• Best match: the pair with the highest overall fun score.
• Mood twins: the pair with the highest mood match. Their expressions were the most alike in this photo.
• Look-alikes: the pair with the highest face resemblance. The face model sees these two faces as the closest.

Group photos are harder for face models than selfies, because faces are smaller. A little care makes the ranking much more reliable:

• Stand close together and fill the frame. Small faces at the back may not be found.
• Everyone faces the camera. Side-on faces change the ratios and may be missed.
• Use even light from the front, not a sunset behind the group.
• Agree on one expression, all smiling or all neutral, so mood match is fair for everyone.
• Keep it to eight people or fewer, or only the largest eight faces are used.

There is real research on group resemblance. In a 2022 paper in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (volume 48, issue 5), Bjornsdottir, Hehman, Agboh and Rule studied university fraternity and sorority members. Faces of members of the same group were judged as more alike than faces from different groups. They also found that this likeness was already there before people joined, rather than growing afterwards.

Our game is not that study and does not repeat its method. It uses a face model and a few ratios on one photo, for fun. It is a nice reason to wonder if your group looks alike, not a way to find out.

Group ranking works well when everyone is in the room. Here are a few ways to play:

• Guess first: before pressing Rank our group, everyone votes on who the Look-alikes will be.
• Same pose round: take two group photos, one serious and one silly, and see if the Mood twins change.
• Reunion check: rank an old group photo and a new one from the same friends.
• Team names: the Best match pair names the group chat for a week.

The top-3 image shows names and scores only, with no faces, so you can post the result without posting anyone's picture. Still, ask the group before you share, and only use photos of people who are happy to be part of the game.

Remember what the numbers are. A low pair is not a bad friendship, and a high pair is not a prediction of anything. The friendship photo test page has more ideas for one-on-one rounds.