How to Type Emojis on a Keyboard: Simple PC Tricks

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Insert your favorite emoji on your computer with our helpful guide

Co-authored by Darlene Antonelli, MA Reviewed by Candace Gasper

Last Updated: September 25, 2025 Fact Checked

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Opening the Character Picker

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Alt Codes

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Program-Specific Emoji

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Emoji Shortcuts

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Video

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Q&A

This wikiHow teaches you how to use the Windows emoji keyboard to type emojis on your PC.

How to Type Emojis on PC

Press the Win + . or Win + ; keys to open the character picker menu. Click on the emoji that you want to use, and it will be inserted into the document or textbox you have active.

Section 1 of 4:

Opening the Character Picker

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Press ⊞ Win+. or ⊞ Win+;. This will open the character picker on Windows.^{[1]
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Just like on your phone, the emojis are split into different categories. You can change categories by clicking on the tabs at the top of the window, or you can simply scroll through to see them all.

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Click the appropriate emoji, and it will appear where your cursor is.
Alternatively, you can hit Esc on your keyboard to close the character picker.

Section 2 of 4:

Alt Codes

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1
Press and hold Alt. Alt codes are codes that you can type on your computer to create a variety of symbols, including a few emojis.
- There are a few ways to type Alt codes on a laptop without a numeric keypad, including using the FnLock key.
- Your keyboard might have a numeric keypad as a sub-function of other keys. Press Fn or NumLock to activate it.
- Even if the keys are unlabeled, the hidden keypad will still work when Num Lock is on.
- You can use Alt codes to insert ASCII or Unicode characters in almost any text platform, like Google Docs or Slack.
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Press the number combination you want. For example, pressing Alt + 1 becomes ☺. Alt + 2 is ☻.
- To see all of the Alt codes you can type, check out alt-codes.net. You can type almost any symbol with Alt codes, including a number of characters that look like emojis (though they're technically not emojis, since emojis are Unicode characters and Alt codes type ASCII characters).

Section 3 of 4:

Program-Specific Emoji

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. In some programs, such as Google Docs, Discord, and Slack, you can type emojis by putting their name in between colons.
To find the name of the emoji you're looking for, check out emojipedia.org. Alternatively, after typing :, you may be brought to an emoji search where you can scroll through the emojis that are available to you.
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Type : again. If the word between the colons is the correct emoji name, the code you just typed will immediately turn into an emoji.
- Depending on the program, you may have to hit ↵ Enter on your keyboard to choose the emoji (such as in Google Docs).
- For example, :joy: will turn into 😂.

Section 4 of 4:

Emoji Shortcuts

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Here's a chart of quick emoticons you can create with your keyboard. Not every program will turn your text into emojis, however. These shortcuts usually work on chat apps like Discord or GroupMe.^{[2]
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Shortcut	Emoticon
:)	Smiley Face
:-)	Smiley Face
:]	Content Face
;)	Winky Face
;-)	Winky Face
:D	Thrilled Face
:-D	Thrilled Face
;P	Goofy Face
;-P	Goofy Face
:P	Silly Face
:-P	Silly Face
8)	Cool guy face
8-)	Cool guy face
:\|	Blank face
:-\|	Blank face
:(	Sad face
:-(	Sad face
o_O	Grossed out face
o.O	Grossed out face
:/	Sick face
:-/	Sick face
:O	Surprised face
:-O	Surprised face
O_O	Tweak face
O.O	Tweak face
o_o	Grossed out face
#)	Poundie
#-)	Poundie
^.^	Nerdy Poundie
^_^	Nerdy Poundie
^^	Nerdy Poundie
:x	Kissy face
:-x	Kissy face
<3	Heart
#(	Frowndie
#-(	Frowndie
m)	Facepalm
m-)	Facepalm
xD	Crying Laughing
XD	Crying Laughing
:'(	Crying face
:'-(	Crying face

Community Q&A

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Question

What if the emoji didn't show up on a post?

Aasim

Top Answerer

Emojis are not supported on systems that use an older encoding, such as ASCII. That may be your problem.

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Question

What if the touch keyboard does not have the emoji key?

Coco Lim

Community Answer

Most touch keyboards have an emoji key. However, if you don't, you can also try right clicking and there will be an emoji icon and you can click into it. It will be the same thing! (If both don't work, on your keyboard, press 'win+period' to find the emoji keys).

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Question

Can I text my friend?

Coco Lim

Community Answer

Obviously, yes! Of course you can text your friends, even though it is in Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp. It is all a yes! Some website/apps have there own emoji or icon (it depends).

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