We can dress up our text messages and apps with as many emojis as we want and that changes the tone. We can’t do that by calling: a shame, Google thought. And so they build ‘audio emoji’ into Android.
The bizarre new feature was discovered by 9to5Google. There are six audio emoji: sounds that you can play during a telephone conversation and that both sides can hear. It involves applause, laughter, party noise, a badum-tss, a fart noise and our favorite: the sad trombone.
The six sounds are located under a new button on the phone screen, where the buttons for speaker, mute and the number keys are also located. And fortunately Google has thought about abuse: there is a cooling period on the sounds, so that you cannot press the fart button all the time in an annoying way.
From next week
Android’s settings explain the feature: “Express emotions and moods with sounds like applause, laughter, sad trombone and more with tappable emoji while on a call.”
The audio emoji are already in the latest beta of the Google Phone app, version 128. It will probably be rolled out to all users next week. So don’t be shocked if you are suddenly presented with sound effects, as if you were calling a radio DJ. In that regard, we have a suggestion for a next update: the ability to upload your own sounds. Then the function remains surprising, a bit like WhatsApp stickers but with sound – the possibilities are endless.
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