The Pixel 8a will offer Audio Emoji for your phone calls (wait, what?)

We uncovered evidence that Google was working on a so-called Audio Emoji feature last week. This would allow you to play sounds like a sad trombone, applause, and more during a phone call. It now turns out that Google’s newly announced Pixel 8a will support this feature.

Yes, Google confirmed in a blog post that the Pixel 8a will support Audio Emoji capabilities:

With Audio Emoji, just tap on an emoji to trigger an audio reaction and visual effect. Try using a hand-clap emoji to applaud a job well done or the laughing emoji after telling your best joke.

Google didn’t list all the possible Audio Emoji you can send. Nevertheless, our own teardown of the Google Phone app discovered references to drumrolls, a piano slide, celebrations, poop, a sad trombone, and a round of applause.

There’s no word if the Pixel 8a will support the feature out-of-the-box or if it’ll require a future update. Google also didn’t clarify whether Audio Emoji will come to other Pixel phones in the future. We’ve nevertheless asked the company for more details about the feature and will update the article if/when it gets back to us.

In any event, the Pixel 8a looks like one of the best mid-range phones on paper, packing a Tensor G3 chipset, a brighter screen, and a suite of AI features. But we’ll need to put the phone through its paces to figure out whether it can really walk the walk.