Windows 10: How to Make Emoji, Kamoji, and GIFs on Your Keyboard

Though it isn't heavily advertised, the emojis for Windows 10 are extensive and easy to access. All you need to do to get started is press the emoji keyboard shortcut.

1. Press “Windows + .” on your keyboard
   

   
   Using this hotkey will let you quickly access the emoji panel on Windows 10. All you need to do is from there is press the face button if you aren't on the right tab already.
   
   

2. Choose a Windows 10 emoji to insert
   

   
   You'll notice that the designs of the emoji aren't quite as punchy as iOS or Android, but most of the emojis you're used to should at least be there. To search just click the “Search emojis” text and type what you're looking for.
   
   Happy emoting! 🥳
   
   

Kaomoji faces can be accessed via the same Windows 10 emoji keyboard shortcut, which is “Windows + .”.

1. Press “Windows + .” and click the Kaomoji button
   

   
   The Japanese keyboard emoji should appear as a winky face in your pop-up menu.
   
   

2. Click a kaomoji to insert it
   

   
   Like the emoji keyboard, you can type in your document so search for a specific kaomoji, or scroll the different lists to find one that's to your liking. Click it to insert it into your document.
   
   

Rather than searching for symbols to paste on Google, you can also emoji keyboard shortcut to find them. This is useful for currency symbols ?, copyright ©, fractions ¾, and more. Here's how:

1. Press “Windows + .”
   

   
   Then, in the pop-up menu, click the symbols icon. It will either look like this (%??+) or it'll be an omega symbol (?), depending on your OS version.
   
   

2. Find your symbol from the relevant tab
   

   
   You'll find different tabs to help you find the correct symbol, from general punctuation to currency, maths, and more.
   
   

If emoji or kaomoji aren't cutting it, you can search Windows GIFs to better get your point across. Here's how:

1. Press “Windows + .”to open the smiley panel, then click ‘GIF'
   

   
   

2. Search for a GIF and click it to insert
   
   

   

3. View the GIF in your document
   

   
   Make sure it's definitely the GIF you were looking for and that everything plays correctly. Often, GIF previews don't show the whole story.
   
   

If your Windows device has a touchscreen, you can instead make use of the touch keyboard to type emoji. This works very similarly to on an iOS or Android device, and thanks to recent Windows updates, is speedy and pain-free.

1. Press the emoji button on your touch keyboard
   

   
   With the new Windows 10 touch keyboard, the icon will appear as a square with a heart in and should be above your “Q” key.
   
   

2. Search for an emoji and tap to insert it
   

   
   At the top left of your Windows 10 touch keyboard, you'll see the options for emoji, GIFs, kaomoji, and more. You can search for a specific emoji in the top-left and click it to insert it in your document.
   
   

If you can't access the emoji menu or touch keyboard, you can still insert emojis via a different messaging platform, such as WhatsApp. Here's how:

1. Insert your emojis on WhatsApp
   

   
   Both the web and desktop versions will work for this.
   
   

2. Copy your message
   
   

   

3. Paste it into a document or app
   

   
   In a document, right-click and press “Paste”. In WordPad, they'll show up as black and white emoji.
   
   

4. OR: paste it on a site
   

   
   You can also paste into a website by pressing “Ctrl + V”. If you paste an emoji from WhatsApp into a site like Trello, they'll adapt to the device you're on. On Windows, you'll see the default Windows emoji, but viewing that same webpage on an iOS or Android device will show their native emoji instead.
   
   If you're pasting into a website or app that already has its own emoji, such as messenger, they'll be overwritten with that app's emoji design.