I don't take a lot of selfies but I know a lot of people who do. Inevitably, those selfies look as if the subject/photographer was trying their best to look like they weren't snapping a selfie. However, when you have to hold the phone with one hand and tap the shutter button with another, it's all too obvious. And what about when you want to take a solo photo and your arm just isn't long enough to get whatever's in the background framed properly?

Well, Google has developed a solution for those who consider the selfie their favorite form of expression. Essentially, what the developers have done is use AI to recognize a gesture. When the camera spots that gesture, it snaps the selfie.

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Said gesture is called the Palm Timer. How this is used will differ, depending on your camera. The Pixel line of phones has the feature baked in and always on (you just have to define how it works with the timer functionality). If you have a Samsung phone, you have to enable the feature.

I've tested Palm Timer over and over and found it to be an absolute must-have for taking selfies, especially when your arm isn't long enough or you don't want to risk messing up the shot by reaching out and tapping the shutter button. 

Let me show you how this is done.

Using the Palm Timer in Android

What you'll need:To make this work you'll need either an updated Pixel or Samsung phone. Keep in mind, however, that the version of Android you have on the device could either require different steps or may not even have the feature built-in. I'll demonstrate this on a Pixel 8 Pro and the steps for the Samsung deviceshouldwork with any phone that has Android 13 or newer installed.

With that out of the way, let's make this happen.

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How to enable the Palm Timer on Pixel phones

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That's it for the Pixel Phone. You can now back out of Settings to the Camera app.

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How to enable the Palm Timer on Samsung phones

This process is a bit different. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Camera app.
2. Tap the gear icon in the upper left corner.
3. Tap Shooting Methods.
4. Tap the On/Off slider for Show Palm until it's in the On position.
5. Back out of Settings.

How to use the Palm Timer

This is very simple. When taking a selfie, all you have to do is hold up your palm toward the camera. You'll see the Camera app recognize your palm and start the countdown. 

Once the countdown hits zero, the selfie is snapped and you're ready to share it with the world (or retake it if you're not satisfied with the results).

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And that's all there is to enabling and using the Palm Timer to help improve your Selfies with Android.

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