Android Users Are Getting a Fart Button
Now you can pretend to be a radio DJ while on hold with the IRS.
Coming soon to an Android phone call near you: a fart button.
As first reported by 9to5Google, Android users on the beta update channel are noticing a new menu in calls made with the Google Phone app. Dubbed “Audio Emoji,” this surprise new feature gives callers a soundboard with six different sound effects, which both sides of the call can hear.
These include clapping, laughing, celebrations, a sad trombone, a “ba dum tss,” and, for some reason, farting. Really, the only thing that's "emoji" about them is that the buttons to play the sounds are emojis.
Audio emojis also include short graphics to go along with the sound effects, including a particularly foul animation of a “chocolate ice cream cone” squishing to the ground while surrounded by flies. You can guess which emoji that effect goes with. At the very least, it seems as if these animations are reserved for the sender, although they might play for the receiver if they also also have audio emojis enabled.
These questions will need to be answered over time, as the feature is rolling out slowly—I didn’t have access to it on my Pixel 8 Pro, and Google has yet to even formally announce it.
If you find yourself saddled with the Audio Emoji menu and would rather not see a small cartoon poop in your phone calls, you can disable the menu via an “X” in its top right corner. It’s unclear whether this prevents friends from sending sound effects your way, though.
At any rate, there is a cooldown between emojis, so you at least won’t have to worry about your call partner spamming you with a fart into sad trombone into ba dum tss combo.
Google’s biggest hardware and software showcase for 2024, Google I/O, is just two weeks away. Here’s hoping the tech giant has something a bit more impressive to show off come May 14.