Microsoft’s New Emoji Button: More Useful Than You Think
Microsoft has added a dedicated emoji button to the Windows 11 taskbar, and while it might seem like another piece of unnecessary clutter, there’s a surprisingly useful feature at its heart. As someone who’s spent far too much time explaining how to access emojis and special characters, I’ve come to appreciate this addition.
One of the core utilities of the emoji window is the access to special characters. Particularly, those of us who aren’t keyboard warriors frequently need to use special, accented characters, such as circumflex accents. Typing these characters can necessitate memorizing altcodes or using application-specific shortcuts. Using the emoji window, however, provides straightforward access to these letters.
In the latest Windows 11 beta build, Microsoft has added an emoji button to the taskbar. This button opens the same emoji window that appears when you use the shortcut Win + . (the Windows key and period). This window provides access to emojis, emoticons, GIFs, the clipboard, and a useful selection of special characters.
It’s the special characters that make this button worthwhile. I’m learning Welsh, a language that uses several special characters, including the circumflex (ˆ), known as the To Bach (little roof) in Welsh, which is used in letters like ŷ and ê. The emoji shortcut is a very easy way to input these.
Two of my colleagues, who didn’t know about the shortcut, learned about it while reading the draft of this article. The fact that this feature isn’t widely known highlights a problem Microsoft’s new button aims to solve.
The emoji window is often a revelation when I tell people it exists. I’ve ended up explaining how to access it many times over. The new button may raise awareness of its existence, and Welsh learners are not the only people who could benefit from quick special character access.
Microsoft acknowledges the value of improved discoverability in their blog post: “We are trying out a new experience to improve the discoverability of the emoji and more panel in Windows 11.”
Of course, the feature isn’t perfect. Ideally, the popup would be easier to navigate with keyboard commands, with tabbing between categories. It would also be helpful to be able to customize the ‘Most recently used’ page.
Microsoft is still experimenting with this feature in the Beta channel update 22635.5015, but it will likely be added to the main version of Windows in the near future.
If you truly dislike the change, you can right-click on the Taskbar, go to Taskbar settings, and disable System tray icons.
