This Emoji Kitchen is a great addition to the Pixel game

Otterbox has decided to put the popular Gboard Emoji Kitchen on trial — and we agree.

What makes this different from any other Pixel story so far?

As far as we can tell, Otterbox’s Emoji Kitchen cases are the first third-party cases to use Google’s intelligence — beyond the “G” symbol — as a selling point. Although this practice is common for many other popular IPs, this is rare for Google to do with a plugin. It’s easy to find cases that are “Made for Google,” but finding cases for the Pixel and some Google IP thrown in is pretty rare. This is licensed for the Pixel 8a, which is Google’s cheapest phone of the year.

The cases are based on the Otterbox React clear cases, but here, they have Emoji Kitchen creations painted on the inside. You have two minor variations to choose from:

• Silly Collage
• Quirky Collage

The difference between the two Emoji Kitchen choices isn’t huge but it’s noticeable. There are goofy food emojis mixed with plants and animals with a total of 9 on the back of each case. Personally, I think the “tortoise hotdog” makes a good Silly Collage case, but I can see the appeal of the “bread cat” only on “Quirky Collage”.

All emojis are printed inside the box. This means that as long as you don’t always remove the case from your phone, it shouldn’t fade or leak when you use your phone for a long time or abuse the case.

It’s fully compatible with the Pixel stand and other wireless chargers too – which is a big plus for the Pixel 8a. Otterbox usually has a lot of cases, but this is a low-profile case that doesn’t add bulk or need to the average Pixel 8a. It plays well with screen protectors but could be a little better. The display lips are very short, so screen protection is important.

Fusing Emoji Kitchen with a clear problem is, in my opinion, the best combination of Google – gaming software and great, affordable tools. I wish Otterbox had provided a tutorial on how to make Emoji Kitchen stickers, because I did long time to try to repeat all 18.

The detail on each of the emoji fusions is excellent. You can see the features and parameters that enable each emoji to appear. Of course, they look like stickers – which I guess is the whole point!

Because every emoji is uploaded from Gboard’s Emoji Kitchen section, there’s no real bait and switch with designs you can’t create yourself on your Android phone. That said, even though I’ve done my best, I’m still not done exactly get the “blue thumbs up” emoji. In fact, I managed to combine two of what I thought were close enough. If you use Gboard and want to make your own, then the recipes for each type are listed below – in no particular order:

Otterbox needs to make this case for more Pixel phones. If the company does, I’m sure it will be a very much popular medicine. We’ve seen many premium manufacturers jump on the Pixel bandwagon in recent years including Peak Design, Mous, Bellroy, and more. While I wouldn’t call Otterbox’s Emoji Kitchen case “premium” in the traditional sense, it’s still the lightest Pixel 8a that offers something special in this space.

Customization can be a great option for future releases – especially since there are thousands of Emoji Kitchen combinations to choose from. The opportunities for future iterations are endless. Imagine creating your own story with your favorite emoji! The level of customization this would provide would be a huge win for Pixel users who crave a unique way to personalize and protect their phone.

This is an expensive case at $49.95 in the US. For some reason, it’s cheap in the UK at just $20.99, which makes the price range even more confusing. That said, this is one of the best Android apps you can get. Is the first story of Emoji Kitchen worth it? The choice is up to you, but we hope to see more additions like this in the future.