Today’s the day! Microsoft has made the new Fluent Design-inspired emojis for all Windows 11 users, with these new designs now rolling out to everyone.
The company calls these new emoticons both personal and familiar and should give Windows 11 users more ways to express themselves in messages.
Their rollout comes after a month of testing with Windows Insiders — an event that was not without controversy. The unveiling of these new emojis came with confusion and distrust, as the earlier signaling was that the OS would be getting support for the 3D variants of these emojis.
However, it has now been clarified that Windows 11 will get the 2D designs, which will not be native to the operating system. They will only appear in apps that support them, like Teams and Skype.
Along with support for Emoji 13.1, Microsoft has added 255 new emojis with more gender-neutral options. A feature to search emojis in all languages is also included, and users can use the updated emoji panel to enter emojis in other applications.
This is how they look natively in Windows 11:
As you can see, Microsoft has moved away from the thick-bordered look and gone for an expressive, playful, and modern look. Redmond even brought back a playful version of Clippy, replacing the standard paperclip.
Flat as they are, the emojis still look livelier than in past versions of the OS.
Speaking of past versions of the OS, only Windows 11 will be getting in on this action.
To get these new emojis, you will need to install the optional updates for the operating system released this month. They were initially shipped as part of Windows 11 build 22000.346, the November Update made available to Insiders.
Dawn of a new era, this!
