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With Windows 11 drastically changing the look of Windows, it’s only natural that Microsoft is radically rethinking its emoji. The company’s design team today announced that it has redesigned over 1,800 emoji, coming later this year. And as promised, one of those changes includes the redesign of the paperclip emoji as Clippy, everyone’s favorite virtual assistant.
While Clippy’s reintroduction is a cute Easter egg – I expect the paperclip emoji to suddenly turn into a parcel most popular among Microsoft users – the real story is Microsoft’s all-new emoji aesthetic.
While there was nothing wrong with the old emoji, they featured a flat design and bold outlines that were at odds with Microsoft’s Fluent design language and the more bubbly emoji of many other platforms.
Microsoft is introducing the new characters early in honor of World Emoji Day, something that exists. The changes boil down to “the old emojis were flat, the new ones are 3D”. But the characters as a whole have been redesigned to deliver the kind of semi-translucent acrylic vibe of the Fluent design language. A video speaks a million words, or whatever that expression is:
I dig them. The old Android blobs might still objectively be the best form for emoji, but I like what Microsoft is offering here. Like many Fluent design elements, emoji are made up of multiple 3D elements, which has also helped Microsoft animate almost all new emoji. We don’t know where these animations will appear, but it’s a cool little touch.
There are even new emoji inspired by working from home, because of the coronavirus and all.
You can read more about Microsoft’s design process in this Medium article. The new emoji will arrive in Teams and Windows “during the holiday season” and will be rolled out to other services “throughout 2022”.
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