Facepalm: Emojis serve as a useful substitute for nonverbal cues when texting, helping to fill in the gaps and better convey the true meaning of a message. That is not necessary with voice calls due to the natural back-and-forth exchange of verbal cues, but Google apparently believes folks may still need help.
As 9to5Google highlights, the tech giant is rolling out audio emoji in its phone app for some reason. The feature is launching with six sound effects including clapping (applause), laughing, party, crying (trombone), sting (ba dum tss), and poop (a fart noise).
When activated, an audio emoji will play a brief sound effect that can be heard by all parties on a call. Google has thoughtfully implemented a “cooldown” period to prevent users from spamming the feature repeatedly. They can be accessed via a button in the overflow menu, and also through the main calling interface. Audio emoji can also be disabled, should you choose.
It’s unclear how serious Google is about the new feature. If it’s little more than a side project from a single engineer or a small group, then so be it. If Mountain View is investing lots of time and resources into the project in hopes of it becoming the next big thing, well… they are likely going to be disappointed in the long run.
Once the novelty of the feature wears off (like, after using it a couple of times), it is probably going to be forgotten about by most people and eventually abandoned by Google. It wouldn’t be the first time Google has got behind a software feature only to give up on it.
Audio emoji are rolling out as part of the latest update available via the beta channel, and will likely be released to general users in the coming weeks. Google’s annual I/O developer conference is just a couple of weeks out on May 14, so perhaps we will learn then how much of a push this feature will receive.
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