Now in public preview: Fluent Emojis

[Kaushal Mehta (LYNC)]

Description

Microsoft is releasing the new Fluent Emojis update, refreshing 1800+ emojis. The new emojis bring a modern and delightful new version of the emojis we use every day. Whether for work, school, or life, the new emojis will bring the power of fun and play into every message or reaction!

Users will see a new take on most of the previous Teams emojis, along with some new picks! All skintone-enabled emojis will continue to have 6 skintone options.

These are the specific changes:

• Emojis in chat and channels messaging will update to the new Fluent style, along with delightful animations for applicable emojis
• Reactions in chat, channels, and live meeting reactions will update to the new Fluent style

For more background on the Fluent Emojis, feel free to read this blog post from our Fluent Design team! An Emoji For Your Thoughts. Microsoft’s new emojis | by Microsoft Design | Microsoft Design | Medium

Screenshots

Fluent emojs in the new emoji picker:

A preview of many of the new emojis:

Flighting status

Available now on Desktop, Web, Mobile, and Meetings.

How to enable

Enabled by default for all tenants.

Note: If you need information about enabling the public preview itself, see “Enable the public preview for Teams” below.

Supported clients and platforms

Windows 10	macOS	iOS	Android	Linux	Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Edge	Internet Explorer
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Known issues

• Some emojis may blend in with certain backgrounds or Teams theming (ex. Ghost on light mode or Spades on dark mode).

Known limitations

• N/A

Enable your Teams client for the public preview 

1. First, IT admins need to set an update policy that turns on Show preview features. Learn how at Public preview in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs.  
2. Users then choose to join the public preview individually. See Get early access to new Teams features - Office Support (microsoft.com) for instructions. 

Summary of public preview features

For a history of features in the Office and Teams public previews, see Release Notes Current Channel (Preview) - Office release notes | Microsoft Docs.

Send us your feedback 

Got feedback on features in the public preview or other areas of Teams? Let us know straight from Teams via Help > Give feedback.  

Thank you,

Preview Team, @Jason_Schumacher 

Quality & Customer Obsession, Microsoft Teams

[#2]

For everyone dissatisfied with the new, static, flat/2D Fluent emojis shipped with Windows 11, there's an easy way to replace the "Segoe UI Emoji" font in your C:\Windows\Fonts folder with version 1.31 (shipped with an early version of Windows 11, featuring updated versions of Unicode 13.0 emojis, however still with the old Modern design, with a thick black outline).

I wrote some posts about this on Reddit.

Read a wee bit more about the various versions of the "Segoe UI Emoji" (and download 'em too) here.

Learn how to properly install them here.

Note: These instructions refer to Windows' own global emoji support. I don't use Microsoft Teams very much, and I'm not sure at all if it relies on the OS's font files or if somehow it has its own assets and stuff; it is possible that, after replacing the newer Fluent ones with the older Modern ones (for example, shown in Windows' emoji picker), they could still appear in many places in Teams -- in particular the animated emojis, which were heavily advertised as one of the highlights of then upcoming Windows 11 (and that promise never came to fruition, being exclusive to Teams, ugh) and which have no direct equivalent anywhere in Windows 10's old apps.

[#3]

Fully agree. I want to go back.
But for the time being, you can still use the Windows Emoji's; Windows logo key + . (period). They have the old, professional look.

[#4]

Dear god why though..?

I mean - little kids might love 'em, but little kids are hardly the target audience for a business product like  Office 365 and Microsoft Teams..

They are just soooo over the top cutesy - I find them pretty vomitous really.

I quite like that they move, but why oh why are they so sickeningly babyish on a business product?

[#5]

These thins are absolutely hideous. Please revert the change and fire whoever approved/requested this redesign.

[#6]

Emojis for kids.... just another "Microsoft knows best" change. The attitude will be "Ignore them for long enough to accept the change".

[#7]

a lot of people at work use emojis at minimum, since most of our communications are official. These emojis are too fun for office use, maybe good for a chat/dating app.

[#8]

I agree; those new emojis are far too busy-looking. The previous version was simple/clean and easy to distinguish

[#9]

Those new emojis are far too busy-looking (I'm being polite here). The previous version was simple/clean and easy to distinguish. Very bad decision to change them

[#10]

The new emojis are an abomination. How do we disabled them???

[#11]

I don't know how much feedback you have had on these, but for a UK business, these are really unusable - they are juvenile, too loud, and simply not appropriate for use in a business setting.

I have four different teams accounts across my own businesses and partners. Two have been moved to the new emojis and two are still using the classic ones. Where the new ones have been introduced, we've simply stopped using emojis in communications (or we ctrl-z to revert to a simple punctuation emoticon before sending messages).

Please reconsider this rollout, and at least leave us with the option of sticking with classic emojis.

[#12]

With all due respect, please rollback back these asap. They are basically unusable in a professional environment. Thanks.

[#13]

Please roll-back or allow a "standard-emoji"-set. This is waaaay far from usable in reasonable business communication - and it hurts my eyes, head and "UX-instincts" :D

[#14]

Please rollback to the old Design, the new ones are unusable in an work environment.

[#15]

I really do hope not...not this time

[#16]

Whatever will be put in the description will not ease things for this 'feature'...
How couldn't someone around there just think...."Hey what if we put some radio buttons in the settings letting users go back to old emojis if they really wants that to?"
How in a company like Microsoft people aren't encouraged to come and say 'this is bad'?

[#17]

These new emojis are horrendous. Please give us the chance to revert back to the previous version. I am not alone in this opinion. Thousands of your customers are screaming at you to change this, not including the ones that don't take the time to voice their opinion here.

Everyone, please take a moment and upvote/comment on these suggestions. If MS is listening, maybe they will revert this madness:

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/71207f98-65bb-ec11-a81b-000d3a03dba2

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/b95cc4bd-2488-ec11-a81b-0022484c51ef

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/86bdb2e3-5158-ec11-a819-6045bd7eb08a

[#18]

Please revert back. Are ya’ll working with Instagram on how to ruin UX unilaterally? 

[#19]

Just to chime in here:
Everyone at my company either dislikes, actively ridicules or outright hates the new designs.

They are:
1. Too small for the default Teams size to be easily readable without straining your eyes
2. Too busy for their size to be easily discernible at a glance
3. Not fitted to Teams' flat~ish design with their bottom-lit 3D style
4. Too cartoony for a professional setting

And honestly. WHY does the (thinking) emoji look like it's picking its nose? Who approved this?

I am a UI/UX coder and I can't even. Please revert or give options.

[#20]

These icons are incredibly bad. Everyone here hates them. I feel embarrassed using them.

[#21]

All my colleagues are complaining about the new emoji. They might look nice in the animated marketing video (https://vimeo.com/573224898), but as small icons inside messages and reactions, they are just too small and indistinguishable from another. Please revert them to the original style or give users the option which emoji they want to use.