With their increasing popularity, Emojis have found their way from instant-messaging apps to emails and business communication. They make business communication less boring and more colorful.
If you use Outlook for emails and want to include emojis in your messages, find the best ways How to Insert Emoji in Outlook. This guide is for desktop, smartphone app, and web versions.
How to Insert Emoji in Outlook Using Desktop (Windows and Mac)
You can use Emoticons, but they are not as appealing. So, use these methods to insert emojis in the Outlook desktop client.
- Use the Keyboard Shortcut for Emoji (Easiest Method)
- Insert Emoji From Symbol
- Insert Emoji Directly from Bing Search
- Add Emoji from Icons
- Assign a Shortcut Key for an Emoji
- Find and Copy an Emoji Directly from the Internet or Any Other Email
1. Use the Keyboard Shortcut for Emoji (Easiest Method)
Microsoft acknowledged the popularity of emojis and made it easier to include smiley faces and other emojis in Outlook. You can open the Emoji Panel by using a shortcut key. Here’s how to use it:
- Open Microsoft Outlook and click the ‘New Email’ button at the top left corner to create a new email. If you already have a draft or are replying to an email, open that.
- Write the recipient’s email and subject line.
- On the message body, write your message, and when you want to add an emoji, press the Windows logo + ; keys together. (Windows key + semicolon key.). If this doesn’t bring up the Emoji Panel, press the Windows logo + . keys at once. (Windows key + period key.)
- For Mac, press the Control + Command + Space keys to open the Emoji Panel.
- From the Emoji Panel, you can select any emoji. You can also click the search button (magnifying glass icon) to find more emojis if they aren’t enough.
- You can also insert emoji in your email subject line using the same shortcut keys.
If the keyboard shortcut isn’t bringing up the Emoji Panel, use Method 2.
2. Insert Emoji from Symbol
If you have some time to go through many emojis, you should check out emoji in the Symbol section on Outlook. Here’s how to find and insert emoji from Symbol:
- Open Outlook and open a new email, draft, or reply to a mail.
- On the new email window, place your mouse cursor where you want to insert the emoji.
- Click the Insert tab on the menu bar.
- In the ‘Insert’ section, click ‘Symbol’ and select ‘More Symbols.’
- It’ll open another window with many symbols. Click the drop-down menu next to ‘Font’ and select ‘Segoe UI Emoji.’
- Scroll down to find many emojis. Select other fonts and explore more icons and emojis if they are less for you.
- To insert an emoji, select it and then click ‘Insert.’
- The Symbols window won’t close when you insert emoji so that you can select and insert as many emojis.
One thing to note here is that the emoji appear in black and white in the Symbol window, but when you select them, they’ll appear in color (if your Windows and Outlook version supports it).
The same is the case with your recipient. If their Windows and Outlook versions are recent, they’ll see the emoji in color.
3. Insert Emoji Directly from Bing Search
For clarity, Bing searches for images, not emojis. But if you’re after a rare emoji, you might find it as a picture, which you can then resize to an emoji.
On Outlook for desktop, you can search for images through Bing, so we’ll use this to find rare emojis. This works best if you only select images that have a white background. Follow these steps:
- Launch Outlook and open a new email, draft, or reply to an email.
- Go to the ‘Insert’ section and click ‘Pictures.’
- A small list will open; select ‘online pictures.’
- You’ll see Bing search in a new window.
- Type the emoji name or anything you want to search.
- Select the image and click ‘Insert.’
- It’ll download and insert the image.
- Resize the image by using the resize points at the image’s corners.
4. Add Emoji from Icons
On the desktop version of Outlook, you can insert icons of many kinds. These are small pictures that you can resize to act as emojis. But they are black and white. If you don’t like it, use other options mentioned in this guide.
Follow these steps to use icons as emojis on Outlook:
- Launch Outlook on your Windows or Mac and open a new email, draft, or reply to an email.
- Navigate to the ‘Insert’ section and pick ‘Icons.’
- A new window will open with many icons, categories for icons, and a search option for finding icons with names. You can browse and find many beautiful emojis.
- If you want to see traditional emojis (smiley faces and reactions), go to the ‘Face’ category, select any number of emojis, and click ‘Insert.’ The icons may be a bit bigger than the text. So resize them to make the icons appear as emojis.
5. Assign a Shortcut Key for an Emoji
If you use some emojis frequently, you can create shortcut keys for them so that when you press those keys, that emoji is inserted into your email.
This is helpful for people for whom Method 1 (Emoji Panel) isn’t working, and they use Method 2 (use Symbol to add emoji).
With this, you can avoid going to the Symbol section every time you need to insert an emoji.
Duplicate these steps to create a shortcut for an emoji on Outlook for desktop:
- Open Outlook and go to an email.
- Click ‘Insert’ from the menu bar.
- Choose the Symbol button and then select ‘More Symbols.’
- Now, click the drop-down menu next to ‘Font’ and choose ‘Segoe UI Emoji.’
- Select the emoji you often use and then click ‘AutoCorrect.’
- It’ll open AutoCorrect options. Type the keys you want to press to make the selected emoji appear. Keep in mind that you should choose keys that aren’t already assigned to other words and symbols. This is why it’s better to use digits. So, type 8888 or any other shortcut key you want to assign, and click OK.
- Now, go to the email message, type the shortcut key, and press the spacebar. It’ll insert the emoji.
6. Find and Copy an Emoji Directly from the Internet or Any Other Email
We know that finding the right emoji is hard, and it’s harder to find an emoji in the Symbol section of Outlook. If you want to keep your emoji search simple, use the keyboard shortcut mentioned in Method 1 or copy an emoji directly from the internet.
Follow these steps:
- Open your web browser and go to Google.
- Type the emoji’s name (for example, the hugging emoji) and enter.
- Open the website that shows the emoji you’re looking for.
- Copy the emoji and paste it into the email. Select the emoji (double click the emoji) and press CTRL + C (or right-click it and select Copy).
- Then go to the email, click where you want to insert the emoji, and press CTRL + V (or right-click and select Paste).
Not only from the internet, but you can also copy an emoji from anywhere, like a document, email, or anywhere else.
If you want to find new emoji, use these steps:
- Open your web browser and visit Google.
- Type ‘new emojis’, ’emoji ideas,’ or ‘business emojis,’ and enter.
- Open some websites and copy emojis from there.
How To Insert Emojis in Outlook Emails for iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices?
- Insert Emoji Directly from the Keyboard
- Find and Copy Emojis from the Internet
1. Insert Emoji Directly from the Keyboard
Inserting emojis on smartphones is pretty easy because the keyboards on iOS and Android have a dedicated emoji button. You can tap it to open the emoji section and select any emoji you want to insert. Like any other app on smartphones, this applies to the Outlook app.
- Open the Outlook app.
- Tap the ‘Compose’ icon at the bottom right corner to create a new message. You can also open a draft or reply to an existing email.
- Tap the body part of the email. Your keyboard will appear.
- Tap the smiley icon near the spacebar to open an emoji section on your keyboard.
- Tap an emoji to insert it into the email.
You can include emojis in the Subject line with the same method.
In case your keyboard doesn’t have the smiley icon, go to your respective app store and install another one that has an emoji keyboard.
2. Find and Copy Emoji from the Internet
If you can’t find the emoji you’re looking for, search for it online and then copy-paste it into the email.
- Open the web browser app on your iOS or Android device.
- Go to Google and search for the emoji’s name or expression.
- Open the emoji website. Long-tap the emoji and select ‘Copy.’
- Go back to your email in Outlook, long-tap the area where you want to insert the emoji, and select ‘Paste.’
- You can also copy emojis from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
How To Add Emojis in Outlook Web Version?
- Choose an Emoji Directly from the Emoji Button
- Find Emoji from the Internet
1. Choose an Emoji Directly from the Emoji Button
If you think inserting emojis from smartphones is the easiest, check this section out because the web version of Outlook has an option in the tools to insert an emoji. You can click it and select an emoji to insert. It’s easy on both desktops and tablets.
- Open a web browser and go to Outlook web.
- Sign in with your details.
- Create a new email, reply to an email, or open a draft.
- Go to the body of the email. Below the email body, find a yellow smiley emoji icon, among other tools. If you don’t find it, click the three dots next to the tools (font size, bold, italic, underlined, font color, etc.) to see the yellow smiley icon.
- Click the smiley face to see a list of emojis.
- Select an emoji to insert it into your Outlook email message.
2. Find Emoji from the Internet
Like Outlook’s desktop application and smartphone app, you can find emojis online to insert into your Outlook web version.
- Open a new tab on your web browser and search on Google for ‘happy emoji’ or anything else.
- Open a website that has the emoji.
- Copy the emoji from the website and paste it to your Outlook web email.
Conclusion
If you’re using Outlook for a desktop, you have multiple options to insert an emoji. However, for the Outlook app and the web version, the methods for inserting emojis are fewer, but they are much easier and quicker.