Gmail Gets Major Emoji Upgrade with New Categories, Recently Used Tab, and More

In recent times, Google has been actively experimenting with various new functionalities for Gmail. According to a recent blog post by @AssembleDebug, it has come to light that Google is currently working on incorporating the ability to react to emails using emojis directly within the Gmail platform. These emoji responses will be displayed alongside the conventional reply button. Furthermore, Google has also revealed its plans to introduce an enhanced and more comprehensive emoji picker in Gmail. Here is everything you should be aware of regarding this development.

Gmail’s new emoji selector

Google announced in a blog post that “Starting today, you can access a wider selection of emojis and set emoji skin tone and gender preferences with the redesigned emoji selector in Gmail on the web.”

But what does that mean for users? The emoji selection now has 9 categories instead of 5. Additionally, it also brings a new “Recently Used” tab where users can choose from recently used emojis instead of having to search for them again. With this updated emoji picker, Gmail users can also set the emoji’s skin color and gender settings. You can do this by clicking on the small arrow to the right of the emoji and the different emoji options will appear. Selecting one setting applies to all relevant emoticons.

There is no administrator control for this feature and end users cannot disable it.

Google announced that individual emoji selections will be saved until the user updates the settings. These updated features are rolling out today and will be available to all Google Workspace customers and users with a personal Google Account in the coming weeks.

Learn more about emoji reactions in Gmail

In this new setting, the emoji reaction button appears in emails right next to the traditional reply button. To begin with, it offers you a selection of popular emoticons such as hearts, party hats, thumbs up, laughter, praying hands and emoticons. However, there is also a handy “+” button at the end, which allows you to react to the email from a wide selection of emoticons. Once you’ve selected an emoji, it will appear at the bottom of the email.

While there is no official release schedule for this feature, it is already working behind the scenes in the Android app. This could mean it could arrive sooner or later.