How to Use Emojis, GIFs and Stickers in Teams (and Add Your Own)

A thumbs-up saves a whole "thanks, got it" message. A well-chosen GIF saves a meeting. Here's where the fun stuff lives in Teams and how to keep it tasteful.

Click the Emoji (smiley) icon under the message box, pick one, and send. Hover over an emoji and click the small arrow to change its skin tone.

Quicker: type a colon and the name, like :smile:, :thumbsup: or :tada:. A list appears as you type; press Enter to pick.

Quicker still: some text turns into emoji automatically. :) becomes 🙂 and

Hover over any message and click one of the quick reactions (👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😢 😡), or click the + to pick any emoji. Reactions don't send a new message, so they're perfect for "seen" and "agreed" without clutter. Click your reaction again to remove it.

Click the Emoji icon, then the GIFs tab. Search for a word ("celebrate", "monday") and click one. Teams uses Giphy and filters out the rude ones by default.

The Stickers tab has meme-style images and templates you can add your own caption to. Click one, type the text if it allows it, and send.

New Teams lets organisations have their own emoji, like the company logo or a product mascot:

1. Click Emoji, then the Custom tab.
2. Click + (or Add emoji).
3. Upload a PNG or GIF (square, under 512 KB) and give it a name.

Everyone in your organisation can now use it. Your admin decides whether all users or only some can add them.

• Check the room: a laughing GIF in a channel about redundancies is not the look.
• Reactions beat messages for low-effort replies.
• Your organisation can restrict GIFs to a strict rating or turn them off. If the GIF tab is missing, that's why.

Shortcodes don't work. Make sure there's a space before the colon, and pick from the pop-up list rather than typing the closing colon yourself.

The GIF tab has gone. An admin turned off Giphy. Nothing you can change yourself.

I can't add a custom emoji. Only people the admin has allowed can upload. Ask IT or a team owner.

Type :name: for emojis, hover and click to react, and browse the GIFs and Stickers tabs when words won't do. A few custom emojis make a team feel like a team, as long as the dog-at-a-laptop GIF stays out of the serious channels.