Google Unleashes 3D Emojis But Still Can’t Decide What a Smiley Really Is
KEY POINTS
- •On World Emoji Day, Google revealed its new 3D emoji designs to the public.
- •The company publicly shared raw .OBJ files for the community to use in creating virtual reality environments.
- •Google’s designers wrestled with fundamental questions like the true shape of smiley faces during the process.
On World Emoji Day, Google did the bewildering yet brave thing of unveiling 3D emojis, diving deep into what they called 'the raw .OBJ files,' which, no, is not a new fitness fad. Instead of sticking to simple 2D blobs, Google pondered existential questions like ‘Is a smiley face a sphere, a mask, or a flat disc?’ — because when you’re creating pictograms the world uses daily, defining ‘smiley’ can seriously keep a designer awake at night. They then generously handed these digital shapes to the community to use in VR worlds, likely so faceless avatars can express fully dimensional approval, awkwardness, or unsolicited thumbs-up in immersive ways. The Verge got the scoop on this multi-dimensional emoji saga, perhaps the most high-stakes smile research since the cave paintings.
Share the Story
(1 of 3)3D emojis mean Google spent weeks agonizing over if a smile is a sphere or a mask, proving that innocent icons have identity crises too.
Google's 3D emoji project is the art world's answer to 'to be or not to be face shaped.' Next, they'll wake us up debating thumb shapes.
Congrats to Google for turning emojis into VR-ready objects, because apparently our feelings needed depth and raw .OBJ files to be valid.
Source: Theverge | Published: 7/18/2026 | Author: Terrence O’Brien
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