Today is World Emoji Day, and Google has taken the opportunity to announce an expansion of its Emoji Kitchen platform, while also previewing a new Emoji Kitchen effect coming soon to YouTube Shorts.
Google first launched Emoji Kitchen on Android devices back in 2020, which enables users to create mash-ups of different emoji characters, essentially combining them into new emoji.
And now, Google’s bringing Emoji Kitchen to Search, so you can create your own mutant emoji within its search engine.
As per Google:
“Type “emoji kitchen” in the Search bar and smash “Get cooking.” Starting today, you’ll see a pop-up with two tabs: a “combine” tab where you can mix any two individual emoji of your choosing, and a new “explore” tab where you can select any single emoji and see how it would combine with any other single emoji. Browse the “recipes” for some inspiration!”
It could be a fun way to celebrate World Emoji Day, by creating your own hybrid creations out of existing emoji characters.
YouTube Shorts is also getting an Emoji Kitchen update, with an emoji mash-up effect coming soon.
Finally, Google has also previewed the latest emojis that will be arriving soon, after being approved by the Unicode Consortium.
“As part of the Unicode 16.0 release, there will be seven new additions in total: a fingerprint, leafless tree, harp, splat, face with bags under eyes, shovel and root vegetable. These new emoji will be available as a web font in both color and monochrome this September, on Android phones by March 2025 and in your favorite Google products in early 2025.”
So if you want to tell someone that you found their stolen harp buried under a leafless tree, and that there are fingerprints on the body that could identify the thief, and also that you’re tired after many sleepless nights trying to track it down, soon you’ll be able to do that in much briefer form.
These are some interesting tools and insights for World Emoji Day, enabling many more people to create emoji cross-breeds. Some of which will be super weird, some might look good, and again, it could be a fun way to engage in the event.
You can read more about Google’s coming emoji updates here.