In today’s edition of big tech throwing darts at a board and seeing what ‘features’ it can create, may we present to you: ‘audiomojis’, a recently spotted phrase in the latest Google Phone app’s beta.
What an audiomoji precisely is very much in the name, it’s an ’emoji’ with some relativeness to audio, but in what capacity it’ll be deployed we don’t yet know.
The publication that first spotted the name in Google’s code, TheSpAndroid, noted that there will be six audiomoji reactions: Sad, Applause, Party Popper, Laugh, Drum roll, and of course ‘Poop’ (all of which you can hear on TheSpAnDroid website). It’s expected that each reaction will be paired with some sort of animation. Some ideas that have been suggested include using a drumroll to announce some news, having laughter after attempting a joke or a sad noise for sad news. This all seems very boomer-coded, IMO.
Google Phone is going to make talking more fun with sound reactions and effects (audiomojis!!)https://t.co/GPtRaburGf#Google #Android pic.twitter.com/gWNgOQ7H39
— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) February 24, 2024
But how will this be used? Well, the most obvious use case for it is in video calls, when your eyes will be able to appreciate the ‘moji’ part of the ‘audio’, but because it’s referenced in the Phone app’s beta code, it could be entirely an audio feature. Animations might just be for selecting which audio clip to play in the background of your call.
But we don’t know, and according to TheSpAndroid, the information isn’t exactly conclusive. Apparently, this feature was first teased in late 2023, but it’s only now that Google appears to have coined ‘audiomoji’ in the code.
Anyway, we’ll keep an eye on it. I sure hope I don’t find out about this feature by hearing somebody click the ‘poop’ sound effect while on the phone with me one day (don’t get any ideas).
Editors note: This immediately reminds me of MSN Winks, and maybe Google is trying to bring them back, to which I say, “here here!”.