Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is working on a new Audio Emoji sound for Halloween.
- It’s now available on the beta version of the Google Phone app.
- This sound will likely be released before Halloween on October 31.
Update: October 17, 2024 (00:38 AM ET): Google has rolled out the spooky Halloween Audio Emoji to the Google Phone app’s beta version. We’re expecting it to become available on the stable version of the app for all users sometime this week.
Original article: October 10, 2024 (5:46 AM ET): Google introduced an Audio Emoji feature on the Pixel 8a phone app earlier this year, effectively acting as a soundboard for your phone calls. The feature has since landed on other Pixel phones, and it looks like Google will add a spooky sound to mark Halloween.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We spotted a Halloween-themed Audio Emoji option in a beta version of the Google Phone app (version 149.0.682953539-publicbeta-pixel2024). This plays a creepy sound that includes a sinister laugh, a shrieking cat, and a thunderbolt. We were able to activate the feature too. Check out a screen recording below.
We can confirm that the Halloween sound replaced the party sound in the Audio Emoji menu, but this isn’t necessarily indicative of what the menu will look like when the new sound is officially released.
Speaking of a release, it stands to reason that this new Audio Emoji sound will land sometime before Halloween on October 31. So you shouldn’t have long to wait to give this a try.
