You’ve probably been using emoji ever since, whether it’s laughing at a funny joke, expressing your love for something or just adding more meaning to a conversation. More recently, you’ve been able to use them to react to specific messages and even emails – on Outlook anyway.  But while your emoji use may be almost exclusive to phones and tablets, it doesn’t need to be that way. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 let you access built-in emojis, even if not all apps support them. Here’s how to get started. 

How to use emoji on Windows

We’re using Windows 11 for the purposes of this tutorial. It looks slightly different on Windows 10, but the method is almost identical. Within the people category, you’ll find six different skin tones to choose from.   On Windows 11, you can also add GIFs from the same panel. Just click the GIF icon rather than the emoji one, then search for anything from the Tenor GIF keyboard. 

However, these aren’t supported in as many places as emojis, and are only available via third-party apps on Windows 10.  To make things even quicker, most apps turn a few keyboard shortcuts into specific emojis. Colon and closed bracket for a smiley face, colon and open bracket for a sad face and colon and capital P for a face with its tongue out are the most common, but there may be more on the apps you’re using. 

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As the resident expert on Windows, Senior Staff Writer Anyron’s main focus is PCs and laptops. Much of the rest of his time is split between smartphones, tablets and audio, with a particular focus on Android devices.