Nothing says “mine” like stuffing your meticulously designed, brand-new smartphone into a plastic shell plastered with anime characters, carbon fiber, pink camouflage or some bright tone of colored paint. Phone cases are here to stay, and while companies like HTC, Samsung and even Apple have taken advantage of that fact, Google hasn’t really embraced the case like other manufacturers. That could change in a very cool way if recent signs of life on Google Workshop pan out.
Back near the tail end of last summer, leaks started popping up on something called Google Workshop. According to a handful of information obtained by Android Police, Google was working on a custom phone case program under the Google Workshop name. The program essentially consists of two parts. The first part is centered around creating cases, and matching live wallpapers, on Moments, or any photograph you want. The point here is to make a case with your family or by using a picture from your vacation, but it seems any photograph will work. Once photos are uploaded to Moments, users can customize them by adding filters or making collages.
The other part of Google Workshop is the much more interesting MapMe section. MapMe allows users to choose a section of a map, presumably from Google Maps, and then create a stylized case from it using bold colors and blocks of text. MapMe cases not only look pretty darn awesome, but they also come with custom live wallpapers that feature information about your map like live tweets.
Back then, Google Workshop looked like it was being tested on Nexus 5 devices, but last night what appears to be a custom MapMe case for a Nexus 6 popped up on Google+ before being taken down. Nothing ever came from the original leaks on Google Workshop, but with evidence of what certainly looks like a MapMe case for the Nexus 6 showing up, the program could very well still be in the works. At least we hope it is. You can check out the new Nexus 6 case below. We’ll be on the close lookout for any more signs of life from Google Workshop. Google I/O is right around the corner now.