Key Takeaways
- Microsoft Teams now supports custom emojis and reactions, enhancing user experience during online collaboration.
- Admins can manage access by toggling custom emojis on or off in the Teams Admin Center, granting permissions to users.
- Custom emojis are available in Public Preview and Microsoft 365 Targeted release channels, with Android support coming later.
Microsoft is always looking for ways to improve Teams for customers. The online collaboration and communication software receives tons of updates each month, which the Redmond tech firm details every four weeks. For the past couple of months, Microsoft has been working on adding support for custom emojis and reactions in Teams, and now, it is ready to roll out this capability for some.
How do I add custom emoji in Teams?
In a blog post, Microsoft has explained how users can add or access custom emojis in Teams. You need to click on the dotted emoji icon in the bottom-right corner of your emoji window, which will bring up the Custom section. Here, you can click on the + icon, which will open File Explorer, allowing you to choose graphics in JPEG, PNG, or GIF format. Once you upload an image file, you can name it and finalize the process by clicking on the Add emoji button.
Now that the custom emoji has been uploaded, you can access it by opening the same Custom section described above. From here, you can insert the custom emoji into a chat message or use it to react to someone else’s message. You can also right-click the emoji to see who created it or delete it, although the latter action requires elevated privileges. That said, it is important to note that custom emojis are only available in the Public Preview and Microsoft 365 Targeted release channels for new Teams clients on Windows, Mac, iOS, and the web right now – Android users don’t have access to this capability yet.
How do admins manage access to this feature?
Teams admins can visit the Teams Admin Center, where they can toggle custom emojis on or off under Message settings – it is on by default though. They can also grant permissions to users to create or delete emojis. All users can view emoji and use emojis by default, but only 5,000 emojis can be created per tenant. Microsoft hopes that this capability will allow customers to personalize Teams during their online interactions. If you have any feedback, make sure to offer it through the Give feedback or Suggest a feature button under Settings and more> Help in Teams.