Here’s a cute little update for all you emoji lovers out there.

Google's keyboard app Gboard now lets you draw and send your own emojis.

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Gboard has tapped into Google’s recent advances with image recognition to come up with a way of recognising your hand drawn emojis.

For example, if you draw something resembling a flower or a smiley face, Gboard will suggest relevant emojis.

Sure, it’s a bit of fun rather than a serious marketing update, but it hints at where Google is going in this area.

Plus it’s pretty fun playing Mr. Squiggle with Gboard.

Fun and games

As part of the update, Gboard also now predicts entire phrases, not just words.

There’s also a souped up search function that displays more relevant results, and links to other Google apps such as Maps and YouTube.

These updates are now available for Android, with iOS functionality coming soon.