Windows Emoji Panel

Emoji Panel (Windows)

The Windows Emoji Panel is a built-in system picker that provides quick keyboard-driven access to emoji, kaomoji, symbols, and clipboard history without leaving any application. It is available on Windows 10 (version 1709 and later) and Windows 11.

Opening the Panel

Two keyboard shortcuts open the panel:

• Win + . (Windows key + period)
• Win + ; (Windows key + semicolon)

The panel appears as a floating popup near the cursor or at the bottom of the screen, depending on the Windows version. It stays open until you press Escape or click elsewhere.

Panel Tabs

The panel is divided into several tabs:

• Emoji: Thousands of emoji organized into categories (smileys, people, animals, food, travel, activities, objects, symbols, flags). A search bar at the top filters by keyword (e.g., typing "fire" shows 🔥 and related emoji).
• Kaomoji: Japanese-style text emoticons such as (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, organized by expression type.
• Symbols: Special characters including currency signs (€, £, ¥), math operators (±, ×, ÷), arrows (→, ↔, ⇒), punctuation, and language characters — useful for inserting characters that are not on a standard keyboard.
• GIFs (Windows 11): Animated GIF search powered by Tenor, for supported apps.
• Clipboard History (if enabled): Recently copied items. Enable clipboard history with Win + V or in Settings → System → Clipboard.

Skin Tone Modifiers

For emoji that support skin tones, right-clicking (or long-pressing on touch) a person emoji shows a skin tone selector. The chosen tone is remembered as the default for that emoji.

Recently Used

The panel tracks recently used emoji and displays them at the top for quick re-access, reducing the need to search repeatedly for commonly used characters.

Using Emoji in Applications

Emoji inserted via the panel are standard Unicode characters — they work in any text field that supports Unicode input, including:

• Word processors and spreadsheets
• Code editors (VS Code, Notepad++)
• Browser address bars and web forms
• Command Prompt and PowerShell (Windows Terminal renders emoji with color)
• Chat and email applications

Windows 11 Improvements

Windows 11 redesigned the panel with a larger, more polished interface, added GIF search, improved the emoji grid layout, and integrated it more tightly with the touch keyboard. The search experience was also expanded to support more natural language queries.

Comparison with Other OS Pickers

Accessibility

The panel is fully keyboard navigable: arrow keys move between emoji, Enter inserts the selected character, and Tab switches between tabs. Screen readers announce emoji names, making it usable without a mouse.