To brighten up your telephone conversations, Google is developing audio emojis for its Phone application. You will be able to send sounds of applause, laughter or even farts! But who validated this curious idea?
But what was going through Google’s mind? The Internet giant has accustomed us to quality updates on its various services, with new, ever more practical functions, including on Google Phone, installed by default on Android smartphones. For example, last March, we learned that the beta version of the application now directly displayed calls from WhatsApp in its communication history – which greatly simplifies things. But there, the Mountain View firm had an idea that was strange to say the least. As noted 9to5google, she tests “audio emojis” in the app. The principle is the same as for emojis used in SMS, namely reacting to a person’s words, except that this time it is a sound effect. And the result is more or less… elegant, we’ll say.
Audio emoji: a novelty that leaves you doubtful
In the settings of the Phone application, Google presents this new function as follows: “Express your emotions and moods with sounds like clapping, laughter, sad paperclip and more with emojis while you are on a call.” Concretely, when you press one of these emojis during a telephone conversation, the application displays a fun animation accompanied by a sound effect. Currently, six emojis are supported; applause, laughter, partying, crying, drums and shit. Yes, you read correctly. The latter should trigger the gentle sound of flatulence. Perfect to punctuate a discussion…
Fortunately, it is impossible to spam your interlocutor with these audio emojis, as Google imposes a delay between two uses. You can access it by pressing the button of the same name, located just above the calls menu. You can of course deactivate the option in the application settings.
For the moment, only a few Google Pixel owners have access to this function, which is still in the beta development phase – the teams still have time to roll back. This was met with much disbelief. For our part, we find it hard to imagine a situation in which we would want to use audio emojis. Especially the poop emoji. It’s funny once, maybe twice, but that’s the maximum!