Googler posts photo of purported ‘Google Workshop’ custom Nexus 6 case

Evidence of a Moto Maker-like “Google Workshop” service for designing custom Nexus 5 cases surfaced last year, but no real product or service ever came of the rumors. The speculation has now been given new life, though, thanks to a recently posted photo from a Googler on Google+, and this time the Nexus 6—Google’s latest flagship—is the subject smartphone getting a custom case…

The originally leaked “Google Workshop” featured two main ways to create a custom Nexus 5 case; you could go with “MapMe” which would create a case based on a Google Maps location of your choice, or you could choose “Moments” which would simply let you upload some photos. The above photo, posted last night by an unnamed “Googler” (via Android Police), shows a Nexus 6 with what looks to be a custom case created with the former option.

Cases with sweet mappy-looking designs don’t necessarily have to come from Google, but it’s worth noting that the Googler specifically noted that it is a “Google Maps” custom case. Combine this with the fact that Google has some pretty strict rules about how companies can use the imagery, it’s almost certain that this case was either 1) ordered/created custom with this specific Maps imagery (probably against Google’s policies), or 2) is part of some extension of the previously-rumored “Workshop” project. Some Google searches looking for a Nexus 6 case with this design turned up nothing on my end.

There’s no word on whether or not Google is actually pursuing this “Workshop” service, but this seems to be a pretty interesting piece of evidence considering how similar it looks to the images leaked last year showing the “MapMe” part of the service (see above). The Google+ post has been deleted at this point, though, and the Googler’s name was blocked out to protect his/her identity. We’ll let you know if we hear anything else.