GoKawiilC. Scott Brown / Android Authority Auto Best Take
It’s been nearly 10 months since the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL arrived at my door, and I’ve been using it as my main phone ever since. It’s my go-to camera, too, and I’ve shot over 4,000 photos and videos with it so far. So when I say that I’m dumbfounded by one of its camera features, please know that it’s not for lack of trying.
The feature I’m specifically talking about is Auto Best Take, which is the smarter and less involved version of the previous Pixels’ Best Take. And no matter what I try, I just can’t get it to work for me.
Did your Pixel 10 ever create an Auto Best Take photo without your intervention? 27 votes Yes, it does it all the time. 15 % I think I saw it once or twice. 11 % No, I always have to manually pick faces for Best Take. 19 % I have no idea what you're talking about. 37 % I don't have a Pixel 10. 19 %
What Auto Best Take is supposed to do On the Pixel 10, Auto Best Take is supposed to augment the already-existing Best Take feature that launched with the Pixel 8. When you take a series of group photos, you can open the Photos app and go to Edit > Actions > Best Take to force the app to look for similar pics and suggest different faces to create a mosaic where everyone is smiling and looking their best.
The face from the left The face from the middle The face from the right All in one photo
The Pixel 10 was supposed to automate that process. You just snap a few group shots, and instead of manually picking faces and improving the picture, the phone should do that for you, and suggest a merged photo with everyone’s best faces. That’s the whole point of “Auto” in Auto Best Take. The feature is shown off in the video below, and also in a clear GIF in Google’s announcement post here. Except that no matter what I try, I can’t get it to work properly.
There’s an Auto Best Take setting, but does it really work? Up until a few weeks ago, Google had zero explanation for how Auto Best Take should work or how to trigger it. The official support page only mentioned having Top Shot set to Auto as a requirement. I spent months trying to get one Auto Top Shot photo over the holidays, friend get-togethers, and group events. Nothing worked. I would only get the few pics that I shot — nothing automatically collated from them.
Now, though, an update to the Pixel Camera app has added a standalone toggle to specifically enable Auto Best Take. (It still requires Top Shot, too.) I thought it would solve my issue with the feature, but alas, not even that seems to do the trick. I’ve enabled the new setting, made sure Top Shot was on, and shot two photos of my husband and me multiple times over the last few weeks, with one of us turning sideways at each snap, to no avail.
First pic shot Second pic shot Is this Auto Best Take?
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