Google has announced a new “glow up” for its blob emojis, the company’s distinctive take on the little faces that populate our text messages and social posts. The update introduces 3D effects to the blobs, giving them a sense of depth, lighting, and motion that the flat originals never had. The announcement, made via the company’s official channels, asks users to weigh in on the look: “What do you think of the 3D effects?”

That single question is about all the detail Google has shared so far. No release date, no list of which emoji get the treatment, no breakdown of the technical pipeline. But the phrase “glow up” — borrowed from internet slang for a dramatic personal transformation — tells you the company thinks this is more than a simple polish. It’s a statement about where Google wants its visual language to go.

The blob legacy

Google’s blob emojis have always been a design outlier. Introduced in 2013 as part of Android KitKat, they replaced the more traditional yellow faces with squishy, amorphous characters that looked like they had been dropped from a cartoon chemistry set. The blobs were polarizing. Some users loved their playful, almost tactile quality. Others found them confusing — what emotion was that green puddle supposed to convey? Google eventually retired the blob set in 2017, swapping in a flatter, more conventional style that aligned with the then-emerging Material Design guidelines.

But the blobs never fully disappeared. They retained a cult following, popping up in Google’s own Easter eggs and in fan art across the web. Now they’re back, and in 3D.

What 3D means for an emoji set

Adding 3D rendering to emoji is not a new idea. Apple has used subtle depth and gradient effects since iOS 10. Samsung’s emoji have a glossy, almost plastic sheen. Even Microsoft’s Fluent Design emoji lean on lighting and shadow. Google’s previous flat style was a deliberate departure from that competition, choosing simplicity over realism.

The new 3D blob design reverses that choice. From the handful of examples shown in the announcement, the blobs now appear to be lit from a single light source, casting soft shadows onto an invisible surface. Their surfaces have a semi-glossy finish that reflects highlights — the “glow” part of the glow up. The effect makes the characters look like tiny, soft plastic toys you could pick up and squeeze.

That tactile quality is important. Emoji are, at their core, proxies for physical expression — a smile, a frown, a raised eyebrow. When an emoji looks like it could occupy real space, it can feel more expressive, more immediate. The 3D treatment could make Google’s blobs feel more present in conversations, reducing the cognitive distance between the image and the emotion it represents.

Design and brand signal

This update fits a broader pattern at Google. The company has been pushing toward more dimensional, expressive interfaces. Android 13 introduced Material You, which uses color extraction and conversation-aware theming to make the OS feel more personal. The Pixel hardware line has leaned into playful, almost toy-like designs with bright colors and rounded corners. The 3D blob emoji are another step in that direction: software that feels human, even a little whimsical.

At the same time, Google is taking a risk. The original blobs were divisive, and the flat style that replaced them was widely seen as a maturation of the platform. Returning to the blob shape — albeit in a flashier form — could reopen old debates. Will users who preferred the flat style find the 3D version too busy? Will the lighting and shadow make the emoji harder to read at small sizes on a notification bar? We don’t yet know.

What we don’t know

The announcement leaves several questions unanswered. When will the 3D blobs roll out? Will they appear on Android, in Google Messages, in Gmail, or across the entire Google product suite? Will users have the option to stick with flat style? Are all 3,000-plus emoji getting the treatment, or just a subset?

Google has not said. The company’s request for feedback — “What do you think of the 3D effects?” — suggests the design might still be in testing, or at least that Google is willing to adjust based on user reaction. That’s a smart play. Emoji changes can provoke strong reactions. In 2020, Google revised its burger emoji to move the cheese under the patty, and the internet spent weeks arguing about proper burger architecture.

The bigger picture

This move also signals something about the state of emoji design generally. The Unicode Consortium, which standardizes emoji, has focused in recent years on expanding representation and adding incremental new symbols. But the look and feel of emoji is left to each platform. That has led to a quiet arms race among Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung, each trying to make their set feel the most polished, the most expressive, the most contemporary.

Google’s 3D blobs are a bid to stand out in that race. They reclaim a distinctive visual identity that the company had abandoned. They add visual richness without moving toward the photorealistic territory that some designers have experimented with. And they do it with a nod to internet culture — “glow up” is the kind of phrase you’d use about a friend who got a new haircut, not an operating system font update.

That’s the point. Emoji are small, but they are one of the most emotionally loaded parts of a user interface. A glow up for the blobs is a glow up for how Google wants to feel in your pocket: less like a tool, more like a companion.

Whether users agree will depend on whether the 3D effects add warmth without adding weight. For now, Google is watching, and the blobs are back in the room.