How to add Emojis to the name of a Microsoft Teams Channels

How to add Emojis to the name of a Microsoft Teams Channels

Microsoft has implemented a way to further customize channel names in Microsoft Teams by adding images to the name in the form of emoji icons.
At first glance, this may seem like a distraction and a waste of time.
But there are good reasons for using emojis in your channel names:
  1. Add emojis in only a few channel names and highlight them more for clarity.
  2. Add emojis to all of your Teams channels and use matching images to better clarify the purpose. Our brain can interpret images faster than text, so this can enhance the user experience.
  3. Another great idea is to use simple emojis like colored squares or dots.
Adding an emoji image to your Teams channel is really simple:
First, create a channel without an image first, then edit it and add the emoji to the channel name.
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Why not add the emoji icon when you create the channel?
When a new channel is created in Microsoft Teams, several things happen in the background. For example, a folder connected to the channel is created in SharePoint, as well as a link to that folder. And this folder in turn may be connected to Windows Explorer, if it is synced in OneDrive. So there are several instances where we want to have a nice basic text-character name without anything special – at least during the creation process. After everything is created, we can edit the name afterwards, which will not change the connected folder name or link.

So now that you've created a Teams channel and selected "Edit the channel", all you have to do is select an emoji and add it to the channel name.
For this, you might want to remember this keyboard shortcut: press and hold the Windows key and press the period key.

"Windows" + " . ”

This will call up the emoji selection popup. Unfortunately, it only works in Windows 10; for older Windows versions, the only option left is to use the touch keyboard.



And that's it! Select your emoji, click save, and you have your customized channel name.

Currently, no custom images or icons can be added. Not yet, unfortunately. But who knows...