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Insert emojis inline with text in Google Docs

Giving and receiving feedback is a critical collaborative workflow in Google Docs. The new emoji reactions feature provides a less formal alternative to comments to express your opinions about document content.


This feature will be on by default and can not be disabled by the user. To access reactions in Docs, hover over any message or an existing anchor and click on the “Add reaction” icon. Additionally, emoji preferences are shared with Google Chat, so any preferences in one app will be reflected in the other. Both apps can be used to update emoji preferences via the picker.


Building upon the recently announced emoji reaction feature, you can now express yourself in a new way by searching for and inserting emojis directly in line with your text in Google Docs.


To search for and add emojis directly in line with text in Docs, follow one or all of the options below:

  • Type “@” followed by a descriptor, such as “@smile”


  • Type “@:” or “:” to see a dropdown list of emojis and the option to navigate to the entire catalog of emojis


Insert emojis in your Google Doc

  1. On your computer, open a Google Doc.

  2. You can either:

  3. At the top, click Insert Emoji.

  4. Enter @emoji and press Enter.

  5. Choose the emoji you want to add or enter search terms for an emoji.

  6. You can also directly search for emojis in the doc by entering @ and entering search terms. For example, to find a list of cat-related emojis, enter @:cat and press Enter.

Insert special characters

  1. On your computer, open Google Docs or Slides. You can’t insert special characters directly in Google Sheets.

  2. Open or create a document or presentation.

  3. At the top, click Insert Special characters.

  4. Find the character you want to insert:

  5. Pick from categories.

  6. Enter the character's Unicode value.

  7. In the box on the right, write the character.

  8. To add a character to your file, click it.

  9. Optional: If you want to add a special character to a spreadsheet, copy it and paste it into a cell on the sheet.





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