14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft cares about the emoji picker in Windows 10 more than users, so the company keeps refining the experience with this UI every once in a while.
The most recent preview build of Windows 10, which is now available for insiders in the Dev channel, comes with massive changes. And this is why Microsoft is rolling out the overhauled emoji picker to testers gradually, which means that only a few people are getting it now, with availability to be expanded as the company determined whether there are any major bugs in there or not.
The most noticeable change in the emoji picker UI is the acrylic background. Part of the Fluent Design, this visual refresh is supposed to bring the emoji screen in line with everything that’s happening in Windows 10 right now, so without a doubt, this is a welcome improvement, even if not a lot of people use emoji.
Having a consistent experience across Windows 10 is a good thing, by all means, so Fluent Design in the emoji picker might not sound like much at first, but it is definitely good progress for the complete visual overhaul of Windows 10.
Microsoft has also improved the searching experience in the emoji picker. The inline search box is now supposed to make finding a specific emoji much easier, so if you’re not sure where you can find a specific smiley face in the large collection available in Windows, just use the search feature.
And then, there’s something that everybody loves: animated GIF support coming to the emoji picker. GIFs are the new cool thing on the Internet, and Microsoft wants its users to be able to use them in Windows 10 too. So beginning with this update, the emoji picker UI comes with Tenor integration, allowing you to also search for a specific GIF right from this small screen. Needless to say, since the GIF support is powered by Tenor, an Internet connection is required to use it.
“Going forward, WIN + [.] and WIN + [;] will now enable you to quickly input animated GIFs. The selection of animated gifs will be continuously updated based on current trends and #hashtags. Search is also available for those times where you need to find the perfect reaction gif to succinctly communicate your message,” Microsoft explains.
“Hello, clipboard history!”
As I said earlier, not a lot of people use the emoji picker, but Microsoft is now making it a lot more useful. And to do this, the company is merging the emoji and the clipboard history experiences into one single screen that’s easy to access by everyone running Windows 10. The good news is that dedicated hotkeys for each of them will continue to be offered, so you can still jump straight to the clipboard history if you don’t want to see the emoji first.
“We are bringing input and clipboard history together into a single experience. You can still press WIN + V to go straight to clipboard history, but now you can also access it by switching to the “Clipboard” category after pressing WIN + [.] or WIN + [;],” Microsoft explains.
If you’re wondering when the new features are supposed to go live for users, this is something that Microsoft isn’t ready to answer. Microsoft says it’s testing features without a specific ETA in mind, but on the other hand, I’m pretty sure the goal is to ship the new emoji picker experience in the major Windows 10 feature update shipping next year and which everyone currently refers to as Windows 10 21H1.