How to Use Windows 11 Emoji Keyboard

Emojis are an active part of our routine communication online. Any message that’s in the making would either end with an emoji or contain them within the sentence. Emojis have improved not just the manner and intensity with which we express emotions online, but they’ve also negated the need for words. So much can be said with the bare minimum.

Such an extensive part of digital linguistics ought to be an inbuilt feature in any digital platform and device, as it is! Microsoft Windows alike has its own emoji keyboard, through which users can easily choose from the Unicode list of emojis without the ache of scrolling through emoji-based pages only to copy and paste emoji. It’s available throughout the operating system, irrespective of the site or application you’re using at the moment.

All you need is these magic shortcut keys to launch the Emoji keyboard in Windows 11: Windows Key + Full Stop (.) or Windows Key + Semi-Colon (;).

See → Full List of Windows 11 Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows 10 vs Windows 11 Emoji Keyboard

Windows 10 and Windows 11 bring the complete emoji to the user’s disposal with a click of two powerful keys. Here, users can discover and use emojis, emoticons, and symbols via keyword-based or manual (browsing) searches.

However, the Windows 10 diversity on the emoji keyboard ends with emojis and symbols. Nothing more, nothing less. Windows 11 broadens that spectrum to so much more. With newer symbols, more categories, and better emojis, everything, from the look and feel to the smoothness of picking the right emojis, has an added layer of comfort in the latest Windows upgrade.

What’s New in Windows 11 Emoji Keyboard

GIFs: The usual group of emojis, emoticons, and symbols available on Windows 10, now has a brand new member on the list, GIFs! Windows 11 offers a GIF section in the emoji keyboard itself! Users can now effortlessly search for GIFs with the same ease as emojis, emoticons, and symbols. Besides, there are many readily available Graphic Interface Formats too.
Clipboard History: The ‘Clipboard History’ button is a brand new feature in the Windows 11 emoji keyboard. It’s a never-been-before. This button stores all the recently copied pieces of information in textual and visual form. Thus easing further use of those saved bits of info.
Better Emojis: The emojis on the Windows 11 emoji keyboard is bigger and better. They’re much more vibrant than the options on Windows 10. In addition, the arrangement of the emoji lists is spaced out, reducing clutter and facilitating easier identification and usage.
Better Availability of Options: All classifications on the emoji keyboard are represented with individual icons that are placed at the top of the keyboard window. Windows 10 has this grouping along the lower circumference of the emoji keyboard in addition to a generic set of groups at the top. The Windows 11 keyboard presents a concise and neat format.
Better Search Section: The Windows 10 keyboard used to have a magnifying glass icon indicating the ‘Search’ button. Windows 11 has simplified the process of looking for emojis. Now there’s a direct search box along with the search icon instead of the latter alone. This ‘Search’ is general on the first window and gets specific with each section.
Better Movability: The new emoji keyboard can be easily moved across the screen with the help of the short horizontal line or hyphen at the top of the keyboard.

More Options: Each section in the keyboard has a clean view. The upgrade has made all aspects of the emoji keyboard super straightforward and easy to consume. Every facet of this feature is categorized into departments (emojis, emoticons, symbols, and gifs).

Using the Windows 11 Emoji Keyboard

The commands to summon the emoji keyboard on Windows 11 are Windows Key + Full-Stop (.) or Windows key + Semi-Colon (;). You can open the emoji keyboard on any screen, including the home screen. But emojis will only appear in textually supported formats.

Once the emoji keyboard is open, you can view the emoji list in two ways. Both leading to the same place. You can click on the smiley face icon at the top, which would lead to the list of all the emojis.

Or, you can click on the right-facing arrowhead placed in the same line as the ‘Emoji’ label, to ‘See More Emoji’.

While searching for emojis, make sure you type single words that best describe the emotion, activity, or feeling you wish to translate to emoji, in the search box. Anything more than a word (except exact emoji names) will not be registered, hence shows no results.

Choose the suitable emoji from the options appearing in the ‘Emoji’ section by clicking on it with mouse cursor or if you’re using keyboard, use the navigation (arrow) keys highlight the emoji you wish to use and press Enter.

You can insert as many emojis as you want with the emoji keyboard by your side. It never disappears, unless you want to close it. You can also shift the type of emojis, change the search words or keywords and apply various emojis too. The emoji keyboard stays through it all.