Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to text people without adding emojis. These pictograms and logograms add more life and meaning to texts, making it easy for others to relate to your message.
A large majority of messaging platforms we use today have native support for emoji. Microsoft Outlook is one of the latest platforms to feature native support for emojis.
The platform did support a few emojis in versions 2016, 2019, and Office 365 via autocorrect options for emoticons. However, now, users can use almost any emoji.
One of the best and easiest ways to use Emojis in Outlook is via shortcuts. Read on to know how you can do it in this Outlook Emoji Shortcut Guide.
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Outlook Emoji vs Emoticon
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Outlook supported emoticons long before it supported emojis. As a result, some Outlook users still confuse emojis with emoticons.
Aside from Outlook, the two terms are often used interchangeably, although they mean different things.
In simple terms, an emoticon is more or less a combination of symbols, whereas an emoji is an actual picture.
You can insert an emoticon in Outlook by combining symbols like alphabets, numbers, and punctuation marks.
On the other hand, emojis don’t depend on these symbols; they are actually pictures. As was said before, the Windows emoji picker panel lets you add emojis the same way you add images.
While an emoticon is plain, an emoji is vivid with colors. However, the relationship between both is that emoticons are like predecessors to emojis. Therefore, most emoticons – like smileys and faces – have emoji versions, which means they are interchangeable.
If you type an emoticon keyboard shortcut in your Outlook program, it will automatically change to an emoji if your version supports it and the emoticon has an Outlook version.
You can particularly insert emoticons in the latest Windows versions with the emoticon picker panel. The panel has a “Kaomoji” section where you’ll find classic emoticons.
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How To Use The Outlook Emoji Shortcut On Windows?
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First of all, the Outlook emoji shortcut works thanks to the emoji picker panel, which comes with Windows 10 and newer versions. In particular, only the Windows English language pack has the emoji picker panel.
As a result, you may need to try other methods of inserting emojis in Outlook if you use a different language pack. You’ll find out about these other options later.
To access the emojis on Outlook via the shortcut, simply press the Windows key and the period (.) button or the semicolon (;) button.
You can do this within the message window as you type. When you do, you get a pop-up like the below:
Image source: Microsoft
Note that this shortcut doesn’t consist of emojis alone. It also features stickers, emoticons, and symbols – these always go hand in hand with emojis.
As a result, you’ll need to select emojis by clicking on the smiley face at the top of the pop-up. You can either scroll through the emoji list or use the search option to find a particular emoji.
Notably, the Windows emoji picker panel, which works with Outlook, has many emojis – more than you may be used to with your mobile device.
The emoji categories include smiley faces and animals, people, celebrations and objects, food and plants, and transportation and places.
In summary, if you use the latest Windows shortcut, the Outlook emoji shortcut is the “Windows” button + the “period (.)” button or the “semicolon (;)” button.
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Outlook Emoji Keyboard Shortcut List For Windows
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While the Windows emoji picker panel and shortcut are the best options for inserting emojis in Outlook, there are still other keyboard shortcuts you can use. In fact, many Outlook users rely on these keyboard shortcuts since not everyone uses the latest Windows version.
Outlook has a keyboard shortcut for almost every common emoji, especially those with an emoticon version.
Here’s a list of some of the most common Outlook emojis and their keyboard shortcuts:
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| Name | Shortcut |
| Smiley face 1 | 🙂 |
| Smiley face 2 | 🙂 |
| Content face | :] |
| Winky face 1 | 😉 |
| Winky face 2 | 😉 |
| Thrilled face 1 | 😀 |
| Thrilled face 2 | 😀 |
| Goofy face 1 | ;P |
| Goofy face 2 | ;-P |
| Silly face 1 | 😛 |
| Silly face 2 | 😛 |
| Cool guy face 1 | 8) |
| Cool guy face 2 | 😎 |
| Blank face 1 | 😐 |
| Blank face 2 | 😐 |
| Sad face 1 | 🙁 |
| Sad face 2 | 🙁 |
| Heart | <3 |
| Crying laughing face 1 | xD |
| Crying laughing face 2 | XD |
| Crying face 1 | :'( |
| Crying face 2 | :’-( |
When you type any of the above shortcuts in Outlook and hit the space button, the program will automatically convert them to the appropriate emoji.
How Will The Emoji Display?
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Emoji you send on Outlook will display as they would on your other platforms – on your social media platforms, for instance.
However, as mentioned earlier, the Windows emoji picker panel is only available in Windows 10 and newer versions. So, if the person who gets the email has an older version of Windows, they won’t be able to view the emoji properly.
What they will see, instead, is an emoticon. In other words, they get a colorless version of the emoji. Nevertheless, some emojis may still display on the old Windows version.
For example, the simile, frown, and heart emojis are natively supported in Outlook 2016, 2019, and Office 365. Hence, they may display if the receiver uses any of the three Outlook versions, even if they use a Windows version older than Windows 10.
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How To Use The Outlook Emoji Shortcut On Mac?
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Emojis aren’t limited to Windows users. You can also use them on Outlook if you use a Mac computer.
Mac devices feature a Character Viewer app like the Windows emoji picker panel. It works not only for inserting emojis but also for inserting symbols, accented letters, and characters from other languages.
The Character Viewer app comes as a default on macOS High Sierra and newer versions. Notably, how you manually insert emojis slightly differs for different macOS versions.
Nevertheless, you can use the “Command + Control + Space” shortcut to bring up the Character Viewer. The shortcut works on most versions. You can try the “fn + E” shortcut if it doesn’t work on your computer.
When the Character Viewer comes up, simply select the emoji option and search for the emoji you want to insert. You can insert it by double clicking on the emoji.
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Other Options To Insert Emoji in Outlook
If you don’t use the latest OS versions and can’t use the shortcuts, here are other options to insert emojis in Outlook on Windows and Mac.
Using Symbols
An everlasting feature of Microsoft Office desktop apps is the ribbon. You can insert emojis in your Outlook emojis via the “Insert” option in the ribbon. You can do this with at least Outlook 2016 and newer versions, and it’s simple.
When you want to insert an emoji, navigate to the “Insert” tab and select the “Symbol” option at the far right. Select “More Symbols” so you get a pop-up window. From the font option, scroll through the list and select the “Segoe UI Emoji” font.
Now, all you need to do is scroll through the list to find the emoji you need. You can make this easier by selecting the “Extended Characters – Code Area 1” option in the subset selection.
When you find the emoji you want, click on the insert button. Note that the emojis in the Symbols pop-up window are black and white, just like emoticons. However, they will change to the colored version after you insert them unless it’s an emoticon without an emoji version.
The Segoe UI Emoji font usually comes by default with Windows computers. However, if you can’t find it among the options in your Outlook program, you can simply download it online and install it.
Notably, the Segoe UI emoji font is not the only emoji font for Windows. You can also install and use others.
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Using Custom Shortcodes
Image Source: Microsoft
If you use Windows, you can also add emojis in Outlook using custom shortcodes. Outlook and Windows are both Microsoft products, so it’s no surprise that such exclusive features are available.
Typically, when you type a shortcut code, it automatically converts to the equivalent emoji. These shortcut codes are premade, but you can customize them and add your own codes. Doing this isn’t difficult.
Like in the previous method, you need to do this via the Symbols pop-up window you can access from the Insert tab. When you launch the pop-up window and select the Segoe UI Emoji, click on the emoji you want to create a shortcode for.
Next, click on the “AutoCorrect” option at the bottom-left. You’ll get a new pop-up where you can customize the emoji’s shortcode. Finally, enter the shortcode you want in the “Replace” option.
For example, if you enter “an55” in the Replace option, Outlook will automatically convert the “an55” text to the specified emoji whenever you type it. This method is ideal if you use a particular emoji frequently.
When creating Outlook emoji shortcodes, you can use any letter, symbol, or punctuation mark. Notably, you can specify exceptions in case there are instances where you want the text to remain as it is.
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Using Imported Images
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As mentioned earlier, emojis are pictures. Therefore, you can insert emojis in Outlook as imported images. It’s relatively flexible and obtainable for Windows and Mac computers.
Interestingly, you don’t need to exit or switch from your Outlook program to get the images. You can use the built-in Online Images option, which comes with all MS Office programs.
Once again, you can access the Online Images option from the Insert tab under the Illustrations category.
When you click on it, you get two options – insert pictures from Bing or Microsoft OneDrive. If you use a Mac, you’ll need to click on Pictures in the Insert tab and then Online Pictures.
Unless you have the emoji files stored in your OneDrive account – which is unlikely – you should choose the Bing option.
In the Bing search box, simply type in “emoji” or the name of any particular emoji you want to insert.
When you find the emoji you want, click on the insert button, and that’s all. The emoji will be imported as an image, and you can adjust the size to fit your message. Alternatively, you can simply import emoji pictures stored on your local drive.
Using Emoji Websites
Image Source: GetEmoji
There are many emoji websites on the internet. You can simply visit them and copy any emoji you want. This option is ideal if you always want to use the latest emojis.
Currently, there are more than 3,363 emojis. However, not all are available in the Windows emoji picker panel or the Mac Character Viewer. You can only get all of them online.
GetEmoji.com and Emojipedia.org are two popular and dependable emoji websites you can use. Simply visit these websites, copy an emoji, and paste it into your Outlook program as you type your message.
You can scroll through the emoji lists, sort by category, or search for emojis by name or description.
The emojis you get from these websites are not different from the emojis on the Windows emoji picker panel or the Mac Character Viewer. Your receiver can view them so long as they have a compatible device.
Getmoji emojis, for example, work on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS devices.
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Using Browser Extensions
Image Source: Chrome Web Store
Another option for inserting emojis in Outlook is using a browser extension. It’s quick and easy to use with Outlook Live – the online Outlook version.
Most emoji browser extensions work like keyboards, while others will hover around the browser environment. Whatever option you go for, you can easily access the emojis via your Outlook Live browser tab.
You’ll find emoji extensions for the most popular browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari for macOS devices. The best ones are free.
Bottom Line
You can insert emojis in Outlook using simple shortcuts on Windows and Mac. However, it mostly depends on the operating system version you’re using.
If you use the latest versions, you can access all emoji functionalities. You can try the other options to insert emojis in Outlook if you can’t use the shortcuts.
