The Definitive Guide to Slack Emojis and custom Slackmojis

Slack emojis are proxies to expressing written words and emotions on a channel chat. Also known as Slackmojis, these emoticons can be used to welcome a new hire, celebrate a teammate's achievement, or simply break the ice between co-workers. It's helpful in showing how you feel without having to write it all in a message. These modern-day hieroglyphics help express emotion, tone, personality, and intent — all of it packed in a standard Slack emoji size, 128 pixels by 128 pixels.

Emojis are ubiquitous in team chat applications like Slack. Though they are widely used in all channels and groups, people tend to miss out on hacks, finer nuances, and etiquette. In this guide, we will share everything you need to know about Slack emojis — How to create custom emojis, how to use them, and best of all: where to find all the best Slack emojis.

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Why use emojis on Slack?

Slack emojis light up conversations without breaking the code of conduct of a Slack workspace. It certainly makes it easier to reply succinctly without having to write out a long reply. Emoji bolster team culture, encourages openness and encourages feedback, leads to higher interactions with different teammates bringing out their fun side and banter, all resulting in a productive happier workspace. In a remote setting, emojis do a good job of replacing the regular water cooler talks and banter.

Emojis are not all fun and games and can also be used for increasing productivity. Teams use specific emoji to bookmark and notify on Slack. Emojis are also used as an acknowledgment for a task that is assigned or finished and for resolving tickets, issues, and the status of the work. Teams have turned creative with integrating Zapier, automate.io, and other integration bots to alter them whenever someone posts a specific emoji in their channel. This can be used for enhanced coordination to automating workflows.

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How to add emojis to Slack?

Slack has a default set of emojis that can also be pepped up to your convenience.

If you are unable to come up with your own custom emojis, do not fret, we have a list of emoji repertoire you can count on! Here is how you can add them to your Slack workspace:

To add a few emojis one by one:

Click the smiley face icon in the message field to open the emoji menu.
Click on Add emoji
Add an Emoji and name it

Unfortunately, to add bulk emojis at once, you’ll need to know a bit of coding and have admin rights to the Slack channel. Here is the guide to add new emoji packs to your Slack workspace.

How to create a custom Slack emoji?

Slack Emojis — Step 1 - Click on the emoji icon at the bottom right of your Slack channel

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Step 2 - Simply click on the ‘Add emoji’ button

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Step 3 - It’s time to get creative! You can upload your own image and name it.

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Step 4 - Your emoji is ready and can be used as a reaction too!

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Slack emoji etiquette

Here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to-dos and don'ts of Slack emojis:

Don’t overuse and abuse: Slack emojis are a symbol of brevity, use them as such. Context is very important!
Avoid miscommunication and misinterpretation: It happens in a workplace setting more than you’d think, coworkers sentiment and sensibilities should be taken into account so as to not offend any teammate. There is a thin line between friendly banter and offensive content, so watch out for those double entendres.
Think about who you’re interacting with: Choose whether to use an emoji based on your personal relationship with that person. Are you very close to them? Do they use emojis too? Do not use it just because you can.

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Different emojis for different situations

1. Pulse, Polls, and Surveys: Polls are a big part of team discussions on Slack channels and emojis can play a big role to gauge the mood of the teams and also getting a definitive understanding of what teammates prefer and prioritize with simple emoji-based responses to polls. Emojis are summarized indicators to see trends, likes and patterns among the teams.

2. Brainstorming ideas: This is a bit similar to polls, but whenever teams brainstorm, there would most likely be differing opinions in any healthy deliberation. Emojis can act as a qualifier that enforces an opinion or disagrees with a hot take, and can lead to the best ideas winning!

3. Work Status: Slack can be a distraction to deep work, especially for developers who need absolute focus to execute their work! Emojis can be a saving grace to update your status and clearly display your current work status, may it be focused on deep work or a busy meeting.

4. Celebrations and appreciations: Clearly, this is why we all use emojis for most of the teams! Whenever a teammate announces a win, we all celebrate with a unique emoji.

5. Breakfast/lunch/dinner: Simply put, show off to your coworkers what you are feasting on currently?

6. Emojis of particular team member: Well, this seems a bit counterintuitive, but hear me out. A lot of workspaces have their team profile photos uploaded as emojis to evoke one of their teammates when they are needed.

7. Productivity and tasks: As mentioned before in the article, you can add logos as emojis. This helps sort out ticketing, issues, and status updates in a sprint cycle.‍

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