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Emoji and emoticons

There are several ways to use an emoji in your message:

You can add custom emoji for your organization. Like default emoji, custom emoji can be entered into the compose box by name, or selected from the emoji picker.

You can also quickly respond to a message by using emoji reactions.

Use an emoji in your message

  • Via compose box buttons
  • Via Markdown
  • Via paste

  1. Open the compose box.

  2. Click the smiley face () icon at the bottom of the compose box.

  3. Select an emoji. You can type to search, use the arrow keys, or click on an emoji with your mouse.

  1. Open the compose box.

  2. Type :, followed by a few letters from the emoji name, to see autocomplete suggestions. The letters don't have to be at the beginning of the emoji name. For example, :app will match both :apple: and :pineapple:.

  3. Type the full emoji name followed by :, or select an emoji from the list of suggestions.

  1. Open the compose box.

  2. Paste an emoji copied from outside of Zulip directly into the compose box.

You can hover over an emoji in the emoji picker, a message, or an emoji reaction to learn its name.

Use an emoticon

You can configure Zulip to convert emoticons into emoji, so that, e.g., :) will be displayed as smile .

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Click on the gear () icon in the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.

  2. Select Personal settings.

  3. On the left, click Preferences.

  4. Under Emoji settings, select Convert emoticons before sending.

The list of supported emoticons is available here.

Examples

What you type

:octopus: :heart: :zulip: :)

What it looks like

Markdown emoji

Change your emoji set

Your emoji set determines how you see emoji. It has no effect on the emoji you send. Zulip emoji are compatible with screen readers and other accessibility tools.

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Click on the gear () icon in the upper right corner of the web or desktop app.

  2. Select Personal settings.

  3. On the left, click Preferences.

  4. Under Emoji, select Google, Twitter, Plain text, or Google blobs for the emoji theme.

Google blobs is an old style of Google emoji that has not been maintained by Google since 2017, when they switched to a more modern style. Zulip allows you to still use blob emoji, but any new emoji that have been released since 2017 will be displayed in the modern Google style.

Don't see an answer to your question? Contact this Zulip server's administrators for support.