Google Chat may soon get an HDR upgrade... for emoji?

Emoji already do plenty to make chats feel less flat, but Google may be preparing to give some of them an actual brightness boost. Strings we found in the latest Gmail app point to a new HDR emoji setting for Google Chat, which could make supported emoji appear brighter and punchier on compatible displays.

The references appear in Gmail version 2026.10.05.993506826. One string labels the option simply as “HDR emoji,” while another says it will “Display-supported emoji in high dynamic range (HDR) with enhanced brightness and contrast.”

At first glance, finding these strings inside Gmail might suggest Google plans to spruce up emoji in emails. However, digging into the accompanying layout files points elsewhere. The setting belongs to Google Chat, which is also built directly into the Gmail app.

Based on the current layout, the HDR emoji toggle should eventually appear in Chat settings below the Smart Compose option. Since Gmail and the standalone Google Chat app share much of the same Chat experience, we’d also expect the option to show up there whenever Google decides to enable it.

The idea isn’t entirely new. Slack users have been creating custom HDR emoji using HDR images, allowing tiny reaction icons to appear dramatically brighter than the surrounding interface on compatible displays. And Google Chat already has a feature that could make this particularly interesting. Users with work or school accounts can create custom emoji for their organizations, but personal Google accounts don’t offer that option. Those custom emoji also stay within the organization and cannot be shared with people outside it.

That makes custom emoji an obvious candidate for HDR treatment, although Google’s wording is broader. Calling them “supported emoji” could mean the feature may eventually work with more than just user-uploaded images.

For now, none of this is actually available in Google Chat, and Google could still change or abandon the feature before release. Still, hints of a dedicated toggle and explanatory text suggest this is more than an idle experiment. Google Chat may soon give certain emoji considerably more visual pop, quite literally.