Language evolves over time. Not only do the definitions of words occasionally change, but terms and concepts are often added to the cultural lexicon. Sometimes, these additions aren’t even words; they're emojis.

Emojis can help you cram a lot of information into either one simple image or a series of images. If you want to tell someone a story is funny, you can say it made you laugh, or you can post an emoji of a laughing face. And if you want to put some extra emphasis on just how very funny you found the story, you can post several laughing emojis back-to-back.

Emojis are now so widespread that many manufacturers include them by default in their gadgets and software. You're probably comfortable using emojis on your phone, but you might wonder how to use them on your PC. You're in luck: Microsoft has made sure there is native emoji functionality for your Windows computer, and we’re going to show you how to use it.

Find the hidden emoji window

Windows 10 and 11 PCs have a hidden window devoted to emojis. This page is divided into several sections that offer a range of emojis. You can use standard emotion emojis, such as winking and crying faces, food emojis, like pizza and cherries, and general symbols, such as hearts and the copyright icon.

You can’t access the emoji panel by just typing “emoji” into the taskbar search box. You can only pull up the emojis by following these steps:

1. Hold down the Windows logo key.
2. While holding down that key, press the period (.) key.

Once you are finished, you can scroll through the emojis and select with your mouse. Alternatively, if you type in the name of the emoji you’re looking for, the window will show the relevant results. However, this only works if you press the necessary keys while typing in a text box, such as a Word document or a search bar.

While the emoji window can insert emojis into any written document, you can also use it to insert kaomoji (combinations of symbols, essentially the world’s first 'emojis') and other symbols that you might not normally find on your keyboard. The Windows 11 version even includes a small library of gifs. The only drawback is that you are limited to the emojis, symbols, and other add-ons that Windows has included. What you see is what you get – unless you use other means to post emojis.

Use a third-party app

If you want access to a wider library of emojis than Windows 10 or 11 can provide, you will have to use a third-party app. You can find plenty on the Microsoft Store, but Discord has more emojis than you will ever know what to do with, so we will use that as an example. Depending on what channels you join, you might even gain access to animated and custom emojis.

Using emojis through Discord is a straightforward task:

1. Open Discord.
2. Click the emoji icon in the chat box (the rightmost symbol).
3. Scroll through all available emojis and click on the one you want to use.

Like the Windows 10 and 11 emoji tab, Discord separates emojis into categories. These include facial emotions, animals, food, and entertainment icons. However, Discord’s emojis are only compatible within their app, and you need a Discord Nitro subscription to use custom and animated emojis. That’s still a small price to pay for emojis which you normally can’t use in Windows.

You could always type emojis the old-fashioned way

While Windows offers no shortage of emoji apps, you can always go back to basics and type emojis one symbol at a time. While the process is slower than using normal emojis, you have a ton of freedom and can create unique emoticon variations by replacing certain symbols or adding new ones. Try it out for yourself and see what you can make.

Now that you know how to use emojis in Windows, you can communicate with much more confidence and with a bit more nuance. And remember: Microsoft is constantly updating its Windows operating system and can easily add more emoji features in a future version.