Microsoft Teams now has over 800 emojis in public preview

Microsoft Teams PC
Microsoft Teams PC (Image credit: Future)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft Teams now has over 800 emojis available in public preview.
  • Teams now has category and skin tone selectors for emojis.
  • You can also use a shortcode picker in Teams.

The skin tone selector makes emojis more inclusive on Teams. You can now select between six different skin tones on the communication app. To swap skin tones, you just need to right-click on any emoji with a dot in the top-right corner.

The new category selector should make it much easier to find the emoji that you want. Teams splits emojis into nine different categories, smilies, hand gestures, people, animals, food, travel and places, activities, objects, and symbols.

Source: Microsoft (Image credit: Source: Microsoft)

The shortcode picker makes it easier to search for emojis if you know their name. For example, you can search "(smi)" and be shown all of the emojis that start with "smi,' such as smile, smirk, and smilecat.

To use these new emojis and emoji options, your tenant needs to be on the Teams public preview. Once that's set up, the new emojis and options will be enabled by default for tenants with emojis turned on.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a news writer and apps editor for Windows Central with 11+ years of experience. A Nottingham Trent journalism graduate, Sean has covered the industry’s arc from the Lumia era to the launch of Windows 11 and generative AI. Having started at Thrifter, he uses his expertise in price tracking to help readers find genuine hardware value.

Beyond tech news, Sean is a UK sports media pioneer. In 2017, he became one of the first to stream via smartphone and is an expert in AP Capture systems. A tech-forward coach, he was named 2024 BAFA Youth Coach of the Year. He is focused on using technology—from AI to Clipchamp—to gain a practical edge.