How to Insert Emoji in Outlook Windows and Mac?

Microsoft Outlook is one of the popular email clients used for personal and professional reasons. Though Gmail grabbed considerable users from Outlook, it still rules the email world due to use in corporate companies. Sending and receiving emails in Outlook is part of many people’s daily life. Therefore, using some emoji in the communication will make it more fun and expressive instead of always using the plain text. In this article, we will explain various ways to insert emoji in Outlook message and subject line in Windows, Mac and web access. Also check the complete list of keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Outlook.

Insert Emoji in Outlook Windows

Here are different ways you can insert emoji in Outlook Windows version.

1. Using Windows Emoji Keyboard

If you are using Windows 10 or 11, then press “Win + Semicolon” or “Win + Dot” keys. This will quickly open up an emoji keyboard for you to search and insert emoji symbols. You can either search from the different categories or type the emoji name to find it. For example, type “tear” to filter all emoji symbols with tears.

2. Use Text Emoticon or Kaomoji

You can use the common emoticon keyboard shortcuts to insert popular emoji symbols in Outlook. For example, :-) will produce the smiling face like ☺︎. Do not worry, you do not need to all these shortcuts if you are using Windows 10 or 11 latest version. You can use the same emoji keyboard to insert Kaomoji symbols in Outlook emails.

3. Alt Code Emoji Shortcuts for Outlook

In our earlier article, we have provided alt code emoji shortcuts for 1000+ emoji symbols. You can also download the PDF for offline reference. Use one of the emoji alt code to insert the symbol on your Outlook emails. For example, Alt + 129315 will insert the ROFL or rolling on the floor laughing emoji like 🤣.

4. Use Symbol Utility

Open a new email in Outlook and navigate to “Insert > Symbol” and click on “More Symbols” option.

It will open “Symbol” utility pop-up like below.

Change the font to Windings, Webdings or Segoe UI Emoji and select the emoji to insert in your email.

5. Use AutoCorrect Shortcuts

If you frequently use few emoji symbols that are difficult to find or use in any of the above methods, then you can create a custom AutoCorrect shortcut in Outlook.

• Launch, Outlook and go to “File > Options” menu.
• Go to “Mail” tab and then click on “Editor Options…” button.

• Now go to “Proofing” tab and click on “AutoCorrect Options…” tab.

• Here you will see a list of all the words Outlook will automatically convert. You should see some smiley emoticons are already available in that list.

• You can add your favorite emoji symbols to the list with easy to use shortcut. Let us say, you want to add a custom replacement for face with tears of joy emoji 😂 using double colon ∷. Type ∷ in “Replace” text box and copy paste the emoji 😂 in “With” text box. 

• Click on “Add” button and then “OK” to save your changes.
• Open a new email, type ∷ and when you press space, it will be automatically converted to tears of joy emoji.

In this manner, you can setup custom emoji shortcuts that you frequently use in your email communication. You can also click on the AutoCorrect option icon and undo the changes to revert to original text.

6. Insert Emoji Stickers

All the above options insert emoji as a text that aligns in your email’s text content. However, you can also insert emoji stickers as images in your email.

• First, you need to download emoji images from any online website. We offer 100+ free emoji stickers that you can download and use in Outlook and other social applications.
• Open an email and go to “Insert > Pictures” menu.
• Choose the downloaded emoji sticker to insert on your email.

Remember, dragging and dropping the picture to your email will generally insert it as an attachment. However, adding through the menu will insert the picture in email’s content area. You can also resize the image inside email if required to adjust the size.

Insert Emoji in Microsoft 365 Outlook App for Mac

Similar to Windows, you can use different ways to insert emoji in Outlook Mac.

1. Using AutoCorrect

The AutoCorrect option will help you to convert simple text like :-) to a smiling face emoji like ☺︎.

You can add custom AutoCorrect shortcuts to add different emoji symbols.

• Open Outlook and press “Command + ,” keys to open “Preferences…”.
• Click on “AutoCorrect” to open the settings.
• Click the + button to add new shortcut for your desired emoji.

2. Use Emoji Keyboard for Mac

Mac has a Character Viewer app to insert all emojis you like in Outlook emails.

• Press, “Command + Control + Space” or “fn + E” shortcut or go to “Edit > Emoji & Symbols” menu when you are in Outlook email.
• This will open Character View app in which you can search your favorite emoji under “Emoji” category. You can also type the emoji name in search box and filter relevant symbols.
• Double click on any emoji to insert it in your email.

3. Using Photo Browser

The last option is to drag and drop a picture from your Photos library. Alternatively, you can click on the picture icon from the toolbar in new email window and select “Photo Browser…” option or go to “Window > Media Browser > Photo Browser” from the menu. This will open your photos stream from which you can find and insert already downloaded emoji pictures in your Outlook email.

Note that you can also use “Picture form File…” option to find and insert emoji picture from any folders in your Mac instead of opening Photos app with “Photo Browser”.

Insert Emoji in Outlook on the Web (OWA) – Online Editor

Outlook web is the popular and easy way to access your emails without using an app. If you are using Outlook web access, you can use emoji keyboard in Windows and Character Viewer in Mac to insert emoji symbols. However, there is also dedicated emoji symbols available in Outlook web that you can use.

• Click on “New Message” button to compose a new email in Outlook web.
• You can find the emoji icon on the bottom tool bar and click on it.

• This will open the “Expressions” panel within the new email section. You can use the search box or navigate through emoji categories to find your favorite emoji and insert in email.

• By default, the emoji panel overlaps on the email area which may be inconvenient when you use it frequently. To view emoji panel separately without overlapping, first open the email composer in a separate new window. Click on emoji icon to open “Expressions” panel which will appear outside your email content. Now, you can use the panel conveniently to insert emoji anywhere in your email content and subject.

Emoji Display in Outlook

As you can see in the above pictures, earlier Outlook versions in Windows 10 was showing emoji in black and white text in Windows app. However, Outlook Microsoft 365 app in Windows 11 supports colorful emoji symbols when you insert using emoji keyboard. Similarly on Mac and browsers, all emoji symbols will look like colorful pictographs. Note that the display will be different if the receipients using Gmail or other email services.