Microsoft’s How-Old.net sends Twitter into meltdown

IF you’ve ever found yourself turning to a friend and asking “but how old do I really look?”, this app could be your new best friend — or your new best frenemy.

FORGET about the colour of that stripey dress, meet today’s Twitter dilemma that is sending social media into mockery, meltdown or, for some lucky folk, elation.

Microsoft has released a facial recognition tool called How-Old.net that is designed to analyse a photo of someone’s face and predict their age.

If you’ve ever found yourself, perhaps after a few drinks, turning to a friend and asking “but how old do I really look?”, then this software guru could be your new best friend — or your new best frenemy.

I tried it on a quick selfie and it told me I was 64, which as it happens are the right digits but in the reverse order.

Refusing to be insulted by a website, I shot another selfie and this time I smiled.

Clearly, my smile sucks because according to the How-Old.net I’m 69.

Microsoft guessed my age as 69. Unless that’s code, screw you http://t.co/9sgd07wxtR - I’m 46 pic.twitter.com/N3W24apl2h

— Rod Chester (@Chesterrod) April 30, 2015

Adopting a grumpy old man persona, I told my family to try it out.

Age is a number ... National technology writer Rod Chester uses Microsoft's How-old.net tool to find he is much older, apparently, than his family.

How-Old.net underguess my wife’s age by several years and got my daughter’s age almost spot on. If I didn’t hate it before, then I did now.

Mashable put How-Old.net to the test by running a bunch of Game of Thrones characters through it. With some, it was close to the money and with others it was way off.

Stannis Baratheon, covered in blood just after a battle, still looks younger than I do apparently.

This is what Microsoft says are the ages of the “Game of Thrones” characters http://t.co/R15qZgu9Xz pic.twitter.com/GqR4F6uZPm

— Jonathan Ellis (@jonathanellis) April 30, 2015

If your ego can handle it, go to How-Old.net and upload a photo or, if you’re using a smartphone, take a selfie.

You might first just want to practice your best Jack Nicholson impression: “You can’t handle the truth”.

This How Old thing is stupid and dumb and also wrong!

— Christian (@_crispy) April 30, 2015

I would say http://t.co/rQICwGBSgK can be really generous. #howold pic.twitter.com/npO1qf5ddB

— Tanner Stokes (@TannerStokes) April 30, 2015

Brace Yourself: #Microsoft Wants to Guess How Old You Are http://t.co/IiP6YUK5Bk pic.twitter.com/ueja3KOGtS

— Markus Kasanmascheff (@mkasanm) April 30, 2015

Breaking: Microsoft reveals how-old site is indeed April Fools joke, but in strict Microsoft tradition, its release was delayed.

— .. (@cloud_opinion) April 30, 2015

Screwing with Microsoft's Age Guessing Machine is Hilarious http://t.co/3uSWw1u3cF pic.twitter.com/Byl2PGsuhf

— Owen Williams (@ow) April 30, 2015