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Google's Detective Pikachu Playmoji bring Pokemon to life on your phone

Now you don't need a Pokeball to catch your favorite Pokemon.

Shelby Brown Editor II
Shelby Brown (she/her/hers) is an editor for CNET's services team. She covers tips and tricks for apps, operating systems and devices, as well as mobile gaming and Apple Arcade news. Shelby also oversees Tech Tips coverage. Before joining CNET, she covered app news for Download.com and served as a freelancer for Louisville.com.
Credentials
  • She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
Shelby Brown
pokemon

It's been more than 20 years and we still gotta catch 'em all. 

Google

Ahead of the new live-action Pokemon movie coming out May 10, Google released a Pokemon Detective Pikachu Playmoji pack in Playground on Thursday. Now you can interact with Charizard, Jigglypuff, Mr. Mime and Detective Pikachu with your phone's camera. The pack is compatible with Pixel phones and select Motorola and LG devices.

"All you have to do is point your camera and drop one of the Playmoji (or all four) into a scene to bring them to life in your photos and videos," Google said in a blog post.

Playground uses ARCore's motion tracking to better understand the real world and light. This will make it look like the Pokemon are really there in front of you.

"You can even take a selfie with Detective Pikachu and share a smile as he reacts to your facial expressions in real time via machine learning," Google said. 

Google and Marvel partnered in April to bring members of the Avengers team as AR stickers to Pixel devices. Some of the characters included Captain America, Nebula, Black Widow, Iron Man and the Hulk. 

Google I/O, the company's annual developers conference kicks off May 7 and has hinted that "something big" is going to happen to the Pixel universe then.

Originally published May 2, 10:39 a.m. PT.
Update, 10:46 a.m. PT: Added more details about playmojis and Google I/O.

Watch this: Nintendo shows latest Pokemon game, Sword and Shield