The Phone app on your Pixel will soon let you use sound reactions and effects on calls

Google seems to be working on a new feature called ‘Audiomoji’ in the Phone app that will let you add fun sound reactions and visual effects to your conversations on your Pixel and other Androids. This should help make your phone calls a lot more expressive.

With Audiomoji, you can send a quick ‘Applause’ sound effect to celebrate good news, let a ‘Sad’ sound convey your disappointment, or build the suspense with a ‘Drumroll.’ There will initially be six Audiomoji options:

• Sad
• Applause
• Celebrate
• Laugh
• Drumroll
• Poop

But it’s not just about the sounds. Each Audiomoji also comes with its own animation, adding a playful visual element to your calls. I’ve shared one such example via a GIF that loads through our Imgur account:

This new feature draws inspiration from the animated emoji reactions in Google Messages, where reactions bring a bit of visual flair to text conversations. Audiomoji promises to do the same for your phone calls. This functionality was spotted by AssembleDebug in collaboration with SmartDroid.de.

While the specifics are still being finalized, you’ll likely be able to access these directly from your call screen. It’s possible Google might integrate ‘Audiomoji’ with its ‘Call Screen’ functionality of the Phone app as well.

Audiomoji is still in the beta testing phase, so there’s no word on an official release date just yet. However, its appearance suggests Google is actively developing the feature, and we might see it rolled out in a future update of the Pixel Phone app.

Audiomoji points to a more dynamic and personalized future for phone calls. It’s a simple yet effective way to inject a dash of fun and emotion into a familiar experience, making those phone conversations with friends and family even more memorable.