Control Alt Achieve: 10 Ways to Add Emojis in Google Tools

Emojis can be a fun and creative tool for educational activities. They are easy to use, can represent many ideas, work well with any age range, and are just fun and engaging!

Over the years I have shared lots of ways that emojis can be used for teaching and learning and creativity.

Some of these have included:

Emoji rebus stories - Valentines or Halloween or Winter
Emoji drag and drop poetry - Valentines or Spring or Halloween or Winter
Character emotions with emojis - Resource link
Random emoji writing prompts - Resource link
Emoji story cubes - Resource link
Graph a pi-line skyline - Resource link
Google sheets emoji math - Resource link
Improving navigation in Docs, Drive, and Classroom
And more!

Also over the years we have gotten more and more ways to add emojis to Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Classroom, Drive, and more.

In this blog post we are going to explore 10 different ways you and your students can add emojis to Google tools. It is good to have all of these different options as some will work better in specific tools or on particular devices or for certain activities.

1) Insert Emoji menu

One option is to add emojis by using the "Insert - Emoji" option in the Google Docs menu.

Works in: Docs, Sheets

To use this option:

Put your cursor where you want to insert an emoji.
Click the "Insert" menu.
Choose "Emoji" from the drop-down menu.
This will open a pop-up emoji selection window.

You can now find the emoji you want in three different ways.

For the first option you can type in a search term to find the emoji you want.
For the second option you can browse through the categories of emojis.
For the third option you can access your most recently used emojis at the bottom.
Whichever method you use, once you find an emoji you want, simply click on the emoji to insert it into your document.

2) Insert Special Characters menu

Another option for adding emojis is to use the "Insert - Special Characters" menu option.

Works in: Docs, Slides, Drawings

To use this option:

Put your cursor where you want to insert an emoji.
Click the "Insert" menu.
Then choose "Special characters" from the drop-down menu.
This will open the "Insert special characters" pop-up window.
Next click on the "Symbol" menu and choose "Emoji".

You can now find the emoji you want in three different ways.

For the first option you can choose the emoji category you want in the second drop-down menu. From that category you can browse the emojis.
For the second option you can type in a search term in the "Search by keyword" box to find the emoji you want.
For the third option you can draw the emoji you want in the box with "Draw a symbol here".
Whichever method you use, once you find an emoji you want, simply click on the emoji to insert it into your document.

3) Insert with the @ menu

Another option for adding emojis is to use the @ menu option in Google Docs.

Works in: Docs

To use this option:

Put your cursor where you want to insert an emoji.
Note: You will need to be at the beginning of a line, or be after a space or period or comma. You can't be butted right up against regular text.
Now type the "@" symbol followed by a word describing the emoji you want.
For example @dog to find emojis of dogs.
This will open the "@ menu" which will list any emojis that match the word you typed, along with other matches including files, people, places, and such.

When you find the emoji you want, simply click on the emoji to insert it into your document.
Note: The emoji will replace the "@" and the word you had typed.

4) Insert with Voice Typing

Another option to add emojis is with the Voice Typing feature in Google Docs or Slides.

Works in: Docs, Slides

To use this option:

Click "Tools" in the menu bar.
Then click "Voice typing" from the drop down menu.
This will open the pop-up microphone window for voice typing.
Next put your cursor where you want to insert an emoji.
Then click on the voice typing microphone to begin dictating to the document.
At any point you can insert an emoji while speaking by saying the name of the emoji followed by the word "emoji".
For example you could say "dog emoji".

The corresponding emoji will be inserted in place of the words you said.
Note: This method works best for emojis that can be said with one word. Emojis with names that are several words long might not always be recognized properly by voice typing.

5) Insert with ChromeOS shortcut

If you are using a Chromebook you can access the built-in emoji picker with a simple keyboard shortcut.

Works in: Anywhere on a Chromebook (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive, Classroom, etc.)

To use this option:

Press the Chromebook Search key along with the Shift key and the Space bar.

Search + Shift + Space

This will open the emoji picker.
You can now find the emoji you want by browsing the categories or searching.
When you find an emoji you want, simply click on it to insert it wherever your cursor is located.

6) Insert with ChromeOS keyboard

If you are using a Chromebook, another option to add emojis is to use the on-screen keyboard in ChromeOS.

Works in: Anywhere on a Chromebook (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive, Classroom, etc.)

Enable quick access

Click on the system menu in the bottom right corner (where the clock is located), and then click the settings gear.
Click on "Accessibility" in the menu on the left.
Turn on "Show accessibility options in Quick Settings".
You can now access these tools quickly by clicking on the system menu in the bottom right corner (where the clock is located), and then clicking the "Accessibility" icon.

Enable the "On-screen keyboard"

Click on the system menu in the bottom right corner (where the clock is located).
Click the "Accessibility" icon.
In the list of accessibility tools, click "On-screen keyboard" to enable this feature.
This will place a small icon in the bottom right corner of the screen which can be clicked at any time to open and use the "On-screen keyboard".

Use the "On-screen keyboard"

Click the small "On-screen keyboard" icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
This will open the keyboard across the bottom portion of your screen.
The keyboard can be used as normal, but to access emojis, click the emoji button at the top of the on-screen keyboard.
You can now find the emoji you want to insert.
You can click on the category icons at the bottom to jump to that section of the emojis.
You can scroll horizontally to see all of the emojis within each category.
You can also choose the category to view your recently used emojis.
When you find an emoji you want, simply click on it to insert it wherever your cursor is located.

7) Insert with the Windows emoji panel

If you are using a Windows computer, another option is to use the built-in emoji picker that comes with Windows.

Works in: Anywhere on a Windows device (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive, Classroom, etc.)

Anytime you are typing while using a Windows device you can access the Windows emoji panel.

Simply press the "Windows" key and the "period" key at the same time.
This will open the pop-up emoji panel.
You can click the "most recently used" button to access recent emojis.
Or you can click through the category buttons at the bottom to quickly jump to that section of the emoji list.
Or you can simply start typing after opening the panel, and it will run a search to find matching emojis.

8) Insert with Add-ons

Another option to add emojis is to use an add-on in Google Docs, such as the "CloudFort Emojis" add-on.

Works in: Docs

Install the "CloudFort Emojis" add-on

If you don't have the "CloudFort Emojis" add-on installed yet, you can do so as follows:

From Google Docs click the "Extensions" menu.
Then choose "Add-ons" from the menu.
Then choose "Get add-ons".
This will open the "Google Workspace Marketplace".
Here you can search for the "CloudFort Emojis" add-on.
Alternately you can go directly to the add-on here: CloudFort Emojis link
Click on the add-on when you find it.

To install the add-on, click the "Install" button.
You will now need to select your Google account and give the add-on permission to install.

Use the "CloudFort Emojis" add-on

Click "Extensions" in the menu at top.
Choose "CloudFort Emojis" and "Start".
This will open the "Emojis" panel on the right side of your document.

Here you can scroll through all of the available emojis.
Or you can click on the category icons at the top to quickly jump to that section of the emoji list.
Or you can access your most recently used emojis at the top.
Whichever method you use, once you find an emoji you want, simply click on the emoji to insert it into your document.

9) Copy from emoji websites

Another option for adding emojis is to copy and paste them from emoji websites.

Works in: Anywhere (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive, Classroom, etc.)

There are a lot of websites that make it easy to search and browse through emojis. Once you find the emoji you are looking for, it is easy to simply copy and paste it into whatever tool you are using.

Some of my favorite emoji websites include:

For example here is how the "Emoji Copy" website works:

First go to the website at https://www.emojicopy.com/
Next browse through the available emojis or enter a search term to find the emoji you want.
When you find the emoji you want, click on it and then click the "Copy" button.

Now go back to your document (or slide or sheet or Classroom or such) and paste in the emoji where you want it.

10) Insert with Chrome extensions

Another option to add emojis is by using a Chrome extension.

Works in: Anywhere (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive, Classroom, etc.)

There are a lot of Chrome extensions that can make it easy to search for and insert emojis. One of my favorites is "Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels".

Installing the "Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels" extension

You can go directly to the extension here: Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels link
Or you can go to the Chrome Web Store at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/
And then search for the "Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels" extension
Either way, when you access the extension page, you can install it by clicking "Add to Chrome".

Using the "Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels" extension

Click the "Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels" extension.
This will open the emoji extension window.

Here you can search for the emoji you want.
Or you can scroll through all the available emojis.
Or you can click the category icons at the top to jump to that section of the emojis.
Or you can access your most recently used emojis.
Whichever method you use, once you find an emoji you want, simply click on the emoji to copy it.
You can now paste the emoji wherever you like.

Bonus Tip - Resizing Emojis

After you insert the emoji into your Google Docs (or Slides, Drawings, Sheets, etc.) you can manipulate it just like regular text. The thing to remember is that even though the emoji looks like an image, as far as Google is concerned it is not really an image, but instead it is text.

Since emojis are really just special text characters, you can resize them just like you would regular text.