Google rolls out charming emoji mashup stickers in Gboard

Google announced a new Gboard feature called Emoji Kitchen on Wednesday. The feature creates mashup stickers of expression emojis with other emojis, akin to the work of a few popular Twitter bots. Emoji Kitchen is currently being rolled out to all Android users with the most recent Gboard update. If you can’t wait, you can sign up for the beta version of Gboard to test out combinations like "glassy-eyed robot" and "monkey cactus."

How does it work? — Using Gboard in any messaging app, tap the emoji of your choice. The keyboard tray will populate suggestions for mashups that you can select. Unfortunately, at this point the emojis are generated as a sticker or image file (meaning you can't throw them in the middle of sentence like you really want to). The combinations also aren’t infinite because, unlike Twitter bots like Emoji Mashup and Emoji + Face Mashup, the stickers were “specially handcrafted by the designers at Google.” As a result, the emojis are far more seamless, but you probably won’t get gems like male clown technologist or bowing nauseous woman.

Regardless of the scope of the mashups, Grammy-award winning rapper Lil Nas X is particularly pleased by the cowboy options:

iPhone users can get in on the fun too thanks to a free iMessage sticker pack from Emoji Mashup’s Louan Bengmah. It’s unclear how the 62 new emoji coming out later this year will fold into Emoji Kitchen, but their integration would add some non-binary inclusivity to the mix.