With each passing generation, the modes of communication have evolved from landlines & mobile phone calls to texting apps. In the 21st century, it resulted in the birth of emojis. These cute digital images are excellent at conveying your emotions through your smartphones, but their usage on computers is still a bit tricky. If you want to bring this fun-packed experience of emojis to your desktop, here’s a guide on how to use Emojis on Windows 10.
How to Use Emojis on Windows 10
Emojis are mostly associated with smartphones. The informal and unprofessional nature of emojis has caused people to believe that they would conflict with the professional domain of computers. But with changing times, these tiny e-cartoons have crept into all of your conversations, personal and professional. Thankfully, Microsoft agreed with the same idea and offered to provide emojis on Windows desktops and laptops. So, let us now discuss the Windows emoji shortcut.
Method 1: Use Keyboard Shortcut
1. Open Notepad or any text-based editor in Windows 10.
2. Now press Windows Key + . (period) on the physical keyboard.
3. The emoji keyboard will appear on your screen.
Method 2: Use Windows Touch Keyboard
The physical keyboard on your PC is not the only way you can type on a Windows desktop. The Ease of Access feature of Windows allows you to use a Virtual/On-screen Keyboard if the manual keyboard gets damaged. Additionally, users of Windows 8 and Windows 10 systems have the option of accessing a virtual keyboard using either touch controls or the mouse to type out desired text. Here’s how to use Emojis on Windows 10 PC using Windows emoji shortcut viz Touch Keyboard:
1. Right-click anywhere on the Taskbar, and click on the Show touch keyboard button, as illustrated below.
2. Click on Keyboard icon from the Taskbar to activate the on-screen keyboard.
3. A virtual keyboard will pop up on your screen. Here, click on the smiley face emoji to open the list of all emojis.
4. Select a Category of emojis from the bottom layer of the keyboard. From the various categories, click the emoji of your choice.
Also Read: How to Enable or Disable Emoji Panel in Windows 10
Method 3: Install Emoji Keyboard Plug-in on Google Chrome
For an average user, most of the texting and typing is done through various applications on the internet. If your preferred choice of web browser is Google Chrome, then you are in luck. There are various plug-ins available on web browsers that are created with the specific motive of adding emojis to your text. Moreover, while the plug-in is limited only to Chrome, its benefits can be utilized across your system. Here’s how to use emojis on Windows 10 desktops/laptops with the help of Google Chrome plug-ins:
1. Download the Emoji Keyboard: Emojis for Chrome on Google Chrome browser. Click on Add to Chrome to add it as a plug-in on Chrome.
2. Once the plugin is installed, a puzzle piece icon representing Extensions will appear on the top right corner of your browser window.
Note: All installed plug-ins will be visible by clicking on Manage extensions. You can Disable or Remove Extensions as per your needs.
3. Open Emoji Keyboard by clicking on it. The following screen will appear.
4. A text box will appear where you can type your text along with the emoji of your choice. Once finished, select the entire text and press Ctrl + C or click on Copy.
5. Head back to the app where you want to use this message and press Ctrl + V keys to paste it.
This is how you can use emojis on Windows 10 PCs.
Method 4: Copy-Paste Emojis from Emoji Generating Websites
The windows touch keyboard, although quite adept, does not offer as wide a range of options as other platforms do. Hence, for users who want more variety, copy-pasting emojis from online websites is a better choice. There are many emoji websites that can be used for this purpose and you can choose anyone. In this method, we will be trying out iEmoji as a Windows emoji shortcut to use emojis on Windows 10 systems.
1. Go to the iEMoji webpage on any web browser.
2. From the wide range of emojis, select the emoji that best suits the emotion you want to express.
3. Select and copy the emoji by pressing Ctrl + C keys.
4. Go to the target location and press Ctrl + V keys to paste the text.
Note: If you are texting through a web browser, your emoji may appear as a Box. But for the recipient, it would remain unchanged.
These were the Windows emoji shortcut to use emojis on Windows 10 systems. The next time you want to convey emotion and are unable to find the right word or phrase, use an emoji instead.
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We hope that this guide was helpful and you were able to use Emojis on Windows 10 PC. If you have any queries or suggestions regarding this article, feel free to drop them in the comments section.