The best custom Gboard emoji combos

Google has long offered the so-called Emoji Kitchen in Gboard, a feature that lets you combine two emoji to create a totally new mashup sticker that embodies both, and yet, I still find myself in awe when I discover a new combination that I hadn’t come across before. This has quickly become my favorite Gboard feature — possibly even the favorite feature on any software keyboard I’ve ever used, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

The collection houses thousands and thousands of combinations and Google keeps adding more and more every other few months. The resulting mashups add so much more personality to existing emoji and allow us to create mixed emotions that a single one wouldn’t properly convey, but the choices can get quite overwhelming. We’ve spent enough time trying out many of the combos and discovering the results, from cutesy to disturbingso we’re going to make things easy for you and share with you our favorites.

How to use Gboard’s Emoji Kitchen

Emoji Kitchen is a feature of Google’s first-party keyboard on Android only. To use it, you need to download and install Gboard, then open it and set it as the default keyboard on your phone. In Gboard’s settings, you should also make sure that Emoji, Stickers & GIFs > Suggestions while typing > Emojis is enabled. This is what ensures that the feature is turned on.

Now, head over to a compatible app (list below) and type two emoji. A strip should show up on top of the keyboard and below the text field with a few large suggested emoji stickers. The first one on the left is a combination of the last two emoji you typed; in the example below, it’s the winking face with a hand covering its mouth in one slightly naughty combo.

Left: The ’emoji’ should be enabled. Right: Sticker bar above the keyboard.

Which apps are compatible with Emoji Kitchen?

These emoji combos don’t work everywhere on your phone. Some apps support them, but the majority don’t. As a general rule, the ones that do are those that already support stickers (because the combo is actually a sticker). We’ve verified that the feature works in these apps, but odds are it’s also compatible with plenty of other text messaging and social network ones:

• Google Messages

• WhatsApp

• Telegram

• Twitter

• Instagram

• Facebook Messenger

• Signal

• TextNow

• LinkedIn

Which emoji are supported in Emoji Kitchen?

It probably takes Google’s designers a lot of time to come up with each design, especially the ones that aren’t a straightforward mash-up of two emoji but a more thoughtful combo (pig + fire = bacon, snowman + fire = melted snowman, etc…), so it’s understandable that the combos aren’t available for all emoji. We’ve listed all the ones that can be mashed up with themselves or with another emoji below, but keep in mind that some may be a bit limited. The 100 points or ribbon, for example, are pretty limited in what they can be combined with.

People and hand gestures are still notably missing to this day, though many of these are pretty difficult to combine with others in the first place. After all, a lot of people emoji are already combinations of certain concepts, like a person with a crown or a person on ski. A few of our favorite animals are still missing, too, like hamsters, chicken, and dinosaurs — but at least the animal section is growing ever bigger with each update. The food and drink section is also looking more complete than ever, though we’re still questioning why some regular old fruits like apples aren’t included.

It’s really nice to see Google stepping up the game when it comes to sports, with almost all sports emoji out there now supported by Emoji Kitchen.

Be aware that a few of the emoji you’ll find below are listed multiple times in different sections — that’s because Google has added these emoji to multiple sections of the Gboard app, and we’re trying to stay as close to Gboard’s order as possible here to make it easier for you to find everything.

Smileys and emoticons

😀😃😄😁😆😅😂🤣😭😉😗😙😚😘🥰😍🤩🥳🙃

🙂🥲🥹😋😛😝😜🤪😇😊☺️😏😌😔😑😐😶🫡🤔🤫

🫢🤭🥱🤗🫣😱🤨🧐😒🙄😮‍💨😤😠😡🤬🥺😟😥😢☹️

🙁🫤😕🤐😰😨😧😦😮😯😲😳🤯😬😓😞😖😣😩😫

😵😵‍💫🫥😴😪🤤🌛🌜🌞🫠😶‍🌫️🥴🥵🥶🤢🤮🤧🤒🤕😷

🤠🤑😎🤓🥸🤥🤡👻💩👽🤖🎃😈👿🔥💫⭐🌟✨💯

💨💦🫧💤🕳️🎉🎊🙈🙉🙊😺😸😹😻😼😽🙀😿😾❤️

🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍♥️💘💝💖💗💓💞💕💌💟❣️❤️‍🩹

💔❤️‍🔥💋🧠🫀🫁🩸🦠🦷🦴☠️💀👁️🫦👅

People

(none supported)

Animals and nature

💐🌹🌺🌷🌸💮🏵️🌼🍄☘️🍀🪴🌵🌲🪵❄️☃️⛄🫧🌀

🌪️🌫️🔥🏜️🌅🌄☀️☁️🌨️☔⚡🌈⭐🌟💫✨🌙🌠🌑🌒

🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌍🌎🌏🙈🙉🙊🐵🦁🐯🐱🐶🐻🐨🐼

🐭🐰🦝🐷🐽🦄🐢🐁🐇🐈🐩🐕🦮🐕‍🦺🐅🐖🐐🦌🦙🦥

🐒🦔🦇🪶🦉🐦🕊️🐧🐟🐙🦂🕷️🐌🐝🦠🐾

Food and drink

🍓🍊🥭🍍🍌🍋🍈🍐🥝🫒🫐🍇🥥🍅🌶️🥕🍠🧅🌽🥦

🥒🫑🥑🧄🥔🫘🌰🥜🍞🫓🥐🥖🥯🥞🧀🥩🍖🍔🌭🥪

🥨🍟🫔🌮🌯🥙🧆🥘🍝🥫🫕🥣🥗🍲🍛🍜🍣🍤🍚🍱

🍙🍘🍥🥠🍰🎂🧁🍫🍩🍪🧂🍿🧋🍵☕🧉🍴🥄🔪🍽️

Travel and places

🛑🚨🛟⚓🚗🏎️🚒🚓🚕🚌🚎🚍🚔🚘🚖🚢🛳️🛥️🚤⛴️⛵

🛸🚀✈️🛫🛬🛩️🎠🎪🏠🏡🏘️🏙️🌆🌇🌃🗺️🌐💺

Activities and events

🎉🎊🎈🎂🎀🎁🧨🪩🎄🎃🎗️🥇🥈🥉🏅🎖️🏆📢⚽⚾🥎

🏀🏐🏈🏉🎾🥅🏸🥍🏏🏑🏒🥌🛷🎿⛸️🛼🩰🛹⛳🎯🏹

🥏🪃🪁🎣🤿🎽🥋🥊🎱🏓🎳♟️🪀🧩🎮🎲🎰🎴🀄🃏🪄

📷📸🎨🖌️🖍️🪡🧵🧶🎹🎷🎺🎸🪕🎻🪘🥁🪗🎤🎧🎙️📺

📹📽️🎥🎞️🎬🎭🎫🎟️

Objects

📱☎️📞🔋🪫💽💿📀🪙💸💵💴💶💷💳💰⚖️🛏️🛁🧸🧽🧼

🧦🎽🪖👑☂️🌂💍💎💄👓🕶️🩹🪓⛓️🖌️🖍️🖊️🖋️✒️✏️📝📒

📔📕📓📗📘📙📚📖🗃️🗄️🗂️📂📁📰📮✉️📧📩📨💌📤📥

📢📣🔍🔎🔮💣🗝️🔑🔐🔏🔒🔓

Symbols

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍♈♉♊♋♌♍♎♏♐♑♒♓⛎

❕❗❔❓⁉️🅰️🆎🅱️🅾️🆑🆘🛑📴📲🔈🔉🔊🎼🎵🎶♻️💱

💲✅✔️🆕🆓🆙🆗🆒💠🌐🏧🚮💟☮️☯️♾️✖️➕➖➗➰➿

〰️©️®️™️♥️💭🗯️💬👁️‍🗨️

Flags

(none supported)

The best ‘modifiers’ for Emoji Kitchen we’ve found

Given the breadth of options available, I wanted to highlight what I’ll call our favorite ‘modifiers.’ These are the emoji that work really well with most others and often yield good or interesting results. Just try them with another face reaction or animal and see for yourself.

For example, you can make anything into a ghost 👻, robot 🤖, alien 👽, pumpkin 🎃, skull 💀, or cyclops 👁. You can put any emoji in a hole 🕳, a crystal ball / snowglobe 🔮, on a platter 🍽, make it the top event on a newspaper 📰, or give it a pair of headphones 🎧.

The upside-down face 🙃 turns any emoji around, the masked face 😷 adds a mask to anything, and the shooting star 💫 makes any emoji dizzy. Fire 🔥, tree 🌲, tornado 🌪, balloon 🎈, and cake 🎂 modify all emoji in a funky way.

The turtle 🐢 and the cat 🐈 are adorable with anything; the hedgehog 🦔, deer 🦌, and llama 🦙 are cute too. There’s also the hot dog 🌭 and poop 💩 emoji, which are pretty much ridiculous with anything you add to them. And let’s not forget the newly added dog 🐕 and all of its derivates, finally bringing some justice for all of us dog lovers.

A few emoji also share the same Emoji Kitchen outcomes, with obvious ones like all the moon emoji yielding the same combo results, but also some more interesting “kitchen-sakes” like 🔥 and 🚒. Almost all the ship emoji also share the ⚓️ combos, for example.

68 best emoji intensification combos in Emoji Kitchen

*rubs hands*

Ah, we get to the fun part now. First, let’s start with the mash-ups made by intensifying the same emoji, i.e. inserting it twice. The results are overall awesome (even if predictable at times), but we’re going to focus on some of the most special combos.

Ridiculously funny

Let’s start with the funniest combos we could spot. They’re spot on based on the emoji they were created from, and do their part to emphasize them to the n-th degree.

Slightly unexpected

Some of the combinations yield unexpected results. Who would have thought that two grinning faces would make one grinning face showing a peace gesture with its fingers?

Downright adorable

The second category we’d like to open is ‘downright adorable.’ Just look at these cute creations!

Just weird

Some of the double emoji are just plain weird. Here are a few of the strangest we could find.

Special animal combos

Yep, there are some great animal combos, too. We’re sure you’ll love all of them, particularly the spider and its cute little spider babies. Right?

100 best distinct emoji combos in Emoji Kitchen

Things get even more interesting when you step out of the simple path of combining the same emoji twice and start mashing up different ones together. For example, you can give any expression to any animal (as long as they’re supported by the feature), mix different colored hearts with various emoji for unexpected effects (try them with the birthday cake, cupcake, or sunglasses, to name a few), make a tornado out of anything, and way, way, way more. There’s not enough time in the world to try them all, but we’ll share with you here the ones we’ve discovered and loved.

Faces and expressions

Everybody loves making faces, but despite the sheer infinite amount of emoji, there might be some expressions that simply aren’t available. Well, fret no more, emoji kitchen and its combos to the rescue!

Let’s bring back the blobs!

Ah, the legendary blobs. After Google killed them so unceremoniously back when it switched to its current set of more standardized emoji for better cross-platform compatibility, the company just can’t let go — and we’re all in for it. Using your magic wand 🪄, you’d be surprised how many emoji you can turn into the good old blobs.

Animal kingdom

Animals. Animals and pets. Aren’t they just the best? It looks like Google thinks the same and has created some beautiful mashups. Here are our favorites.

The turtle special

From the start, Google has shown some extra love for turtles, with many fun combos just for everyone’s favorite marine reptile. And as such, here’s our turtle special!

The dogs are finally here!

Much to my dislike, Gboard dragged its feet when it came to dog emoji for a long time. But after a while, the company has finally added support for all the dog emoji, and here are just a few of my favorites.

Cityscapes

The city emoji is downright boring. There is only one way to depict a city? Well, fret no more thanks to Emoji Kitchen, and all of its combos!

Color modifiers

Color modifiers, i.e., all the hearts (💚❤️💜🧡💙🤎💛🤍), are particularly fun, as they allow you to create just what you need on the fly. Check some of the possible combinations to get an idea of what you can do with them.

Good nature, bad nature

A collection of all the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to nature.

Food and lots of hot dogs

Food emoji are among the most used, and for good reason — you can just express so much with them. And when you combine them with other food emoji, you can express yourself even more granularly! Who knew that there are so many ways to enjoy your hot dog?

All the shitty ones

What’s that smell? Yep, it’s just what you thought it is.

Don’t stop the music

Who doesn’t love music? There are so many different ways to enjoy it, and these are just a few ways.

Love, lust, and breakups

Love is blind, except for when you use emoji to portray it — then there is a lot to see.

Moaaaaarrrrr

A.k.a. miscellaneous. Here’s all the fun stuff I discovered but could quite fit in a category.

Whew… that’s a lot of emoji, but even so, we’ve still barely scratched the surface. There are thousands of other possible combos, so I suggest you fire up your thumbs and start trying them out. I’m sure you’ll find even more interesting ones that we didn’t include here.

Taylor Kerns and Manuel Vonau contributed to this article.