Emojis, also known as emoticons, are a fun way to express yourself on your computer, tablet, or phone. The problem is that you are often limited to emojis included on your device or the website. For example, Facebook uses different emojis than your iPhone. What if there is an emoji you want to use on a program or device but it isn’t available?
No worries! There is a neat little trick you can do. All you have to do is follow this emoji copy and paste trick.
What Are Emojis?
You know emojis are fun pictures, but there is more to them than that. Most pictures on your computer are in JPG, GIF, or PNG format. Emojis are not traditional images as you know them on your computer. They use Unicode. Put simply, Unicode is a set of numbers and letters, called code points, that the computer or device interprets and changes to look like the symbol. You see the symbol or emoji and not the code.
Chances are high that you have no clue what these code points are or how to use them. So, how can you use the same emojis across different programs and devices? Copy and paste will become your best friend.
Why Would You Want to Copy and Paste Emojis?
As mentioned earlier, not all programs use the same emojis. You might notice an emoji on your Android phone that you can’t find on your Facebook messenger. Imagine you’re in a situation where that one emoji is all you need to express yourself perfectly, but you can’t get it! Well, now you can! There are thousands of different emojis out in the computer Unicode world that you probably don’t know even exist, and now you can use them all! With copy and paste, all of the emojis are within reach and ready for you to share to all your family and friends.
The Copy and Paste Emoji Trick
You copy and paste emojis the same way you copy and paste text. Instead of copying and pasting text, you are transferring the code used to create the emoji. Follow these steps to copy and paste:
- Find an emoji you want to use for a message on your phone, tablet, or computer or with programs such as Twitter, Snapchat, or Facebook.
- Right click on the emoji picture. A list of options will pop up.
- Click on “copy” and the code will copy to your clipboard just like with text.
- Open the program you want to use the emoji on.
- Right click on the text box in the program so that the list of options opens.
- Click “paste” and the emoji will appear.
Sometimes you will need to click on the emoji you want to copy to make sure that you are selecting that particular image, otherwise you won’t see the copy option when you right click. Also, sometimes when you paste an emoji in a program, such as Facebook Messenger, you will see the gobbled-gook code instead of the image, but don’t worry, the program will interpret it and the emoji will appear once the message is sent.
By the way, you can also use the copy and paste trick on images. Follow the steps to move pictures you find online or use in Word to move between programs or include in a chat.
Where to Find New Emojis
Now that you know how to copy and paste, I bet you want to get your hands on all the available emojis possible! There are many websites that offer emojis for you to use as you please. Here are some of the best:
Other Ways to Obtain Emojis
The copy and paste emoji trick is pretty easy, but there are also other ways to get emojis on your device and use them on various programs.
Emoji keyboards: These are keyboards you can download to your device that contain a variety of emojis. Download and install the keyboard to your phone or tablet and then set it as your default keyboard. It will pop up whenever you go to type and all the emojis will be there to use.
Emoji fonts: These are fonts that you install to your computer. Once installed, you can select the font in writing programs and will have emojis available to use. Many fonts work in Internet browsers and with Android devices so you can also use them in your messaging programs such as Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat.
- Browser extensions: Browsers like Firefox and Chrome allow you to install extensions that perform certain tasks or add more fun to your Internet experience. You can find browser extensions that contain emojis. Whenever you use the browser with the extension install, you can use the emojis.
How to Make Your Own Emojis
Want to make your own emojis to share with friends? There are a couple ways to go about this:
The easiest way to make your own emojis is to use an emoji app. These apps are designed for you to make your own emoticons to share. You can even save them and use them on your many programs. Include them in emails, blogs, school essays, and on social media. Here are two of the best emoji apps:
The second, more complicated, way to make your emojis is to create them in a photo editing program. Essentially, you need to take an image you want to make into an emoticon and shrink it down to emoji size.
- An acceptable size is 160 x 160 pixels.
- Make sure the resolution is pretty high at about 300dpi so it stays clear.
- Save the image as .png extension.
You now have your own emoji. Just remember that you have made a small picture and not a Unicode code point. If you use your homemade emoticon with some programs, such as in a Facebook post, it will appear as an image. When you use your DIY emoji in chat programs, it will appear like an emoji.
With the easy emoji copy and paste trick all the emojis in the entire computer universe are available to you! All it takes is a couple of clicks to share them with everyone you know.