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Custom emojis and reactions in Microsoft Teams

Feature deep dive
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Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! We’re excited to announce that now you can bring more creativity and expression to your Teams messaging with custom emojis and reactions.

Custom emojis and reactions in Microsoft Teams

Let your personality shine in Teams! Now you have the ability to upload your own custom emojis to personalize your messaging and reflect your team’s unique culture.

Custom emojis and reactions in Teams are a great way to efficiently communicate your status or share a lighthearted message or feeling. There is a maximum of 5,000 custom emojis allowed per tenant.

How it works

Access custom emojis

1. Open a Teams chat or channel and in the chat box, select the Emoji icon (Insert Emoji icon from Microsoft Teams interface.).
2. At the top of the window, select the Emoji menu option.

Screenshot of a chat in Microsoft Teams showing dialog box featuring Emoji options.

3. In the bottom right area of the window, select the Emoji icon with the dotted line circle around it (Dotted line emoji icon from Microsoft Teams chat interface.). This will bring up the Custom section of the emojis library. Select the one you want from these options to insert it into your chat.

Screenshot of a chat in Microsoft Teams showing dialog box featuring custom Emoji options.

4. To see who created the emoji, or to delete it (if you have permissions to do so), right-click on it.

Screenshot of a chat in Microsoft Teams showing how to delete a custom emoji.

Upload new emojis

1. If you have permissions to add emojis for your organization, in the Custom section of the Emojis library (shown above), select the + icon. A File Explorer window will open to allow you to select a new image or GIF file to use as a custom emoji. (You can upload a JPEG, PNG, or GIF file; smaller images with square dimensions work best. NOTE: Custom emojis and reactions cannot currently be uploaded on Android.)

Screenshot of a chat in Microsoft Teams showing a File Explorer window where you can select a custom emoji to add to Teams.

2. To assign a name to your new custom emoji, type it in the Name box and select Add emoji.

Screenshot of a chat in Microsoft Teams showing dialog box where you can name your custom emoji.

3. When your upload has succeeded, a confirmation message will appear on the screen (shown here in the lower left corner).

Screenshot of a chat in Microsoft Teams showing confirmation that a custom emoji has been added.

Manage custom emoji features (for admins)

1. Go to the Teams Admin Center. NOTE: To access the Teams Admin Center, sign in at admin.teams.microsoft.com.

2. Under Messaging settings, you can turn the custom emoji feature on or off for your entire tenant. (It’s set to on by default.)

Messaging Settings screen from Microsoft Teams showing how to turn on Custom Emojis.

3. To grant permission to users to create and delete emojis, adjust the settings in the messaging policy groups. (Everyone can create custom emojis by default; only admins can delete by default.)

Messaging Settings screen for Microsoft Teams that shows Custom Emojis toggle.

Requirements

If your admin has added you as part of the tenant, you can view and use all the new custom emojis and reactions by default. Admins can use the Teams Admin Center controls to turn off custom emojis or select which users can create or delete them.

Availability

To use this feature, you must be a member of the Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted release and use the new Teams client for Windows, Mac, or the web.

To enable your Teams client for the Public Preview, IT administrators must enable Show preview features in their update policy. Learn more   

For Targeted release, global admins can go to the Microsoft 365 admin center and give access to a select set of individuals or the entire organization. Learn more  

Feedback

We want to hear from you! Select Settings and more > Help in the top right corner of the Teams app, and then select either Give feedback or Suggest a feature to share your thoughts.