Microsoft might be bringing in 3D emojis on Windows 11

Microsoft is reportedly working on “true 3D emojis” for Windows and might introduce it in Windows 11. The company had teased 3D emojis last year but then rolled out the 2D ones in Windows 11. Now, as Microsoft’s distinguished designer Nando Costa’s LinkedIn post states, the company is still working on making Windows 11’s emojis look 3D.

Costa shared some details about this new feature in the blog post detailing Microsoft’s push towards making the emojis 3D after a 2020 hackathon. He also responded to a tweet from one Twitter user who wanted 3D emojis in Windows 11, and said “We’re working on that”.

The designer has not mentioned when we might finally see 3D emojis in Windows 11, but as his post mentions, Microsoft is working on it.

Microsoft had promised 3D emojis with Windows 11 and had also unveiled some impressive samples, but they chose to roll out the new software with the 2D designs without explaining why. As The Verge points out, it was possibly because flatter 2D designs “work better across multiple applications”, and also that “there could be some technical limitations in Windows that Microsoft needs to work through before 3D emoji are a reality”.

Costa has shared in the blog that Microsoft has chosen to “reflect human qualities” like wrinkles and hair styles in the new 3D emojis. “One of our most cherished qualities in the smileys set is the notion of an Imperfect Circle. To embrace a more human quality in our smileys set, we chose a wobbly shape to their silhouette, hinting at the imperfections in all of us, which added a personality character to the designs and yet kept them closely aligned with the aesthetic we extended to the rest of the system,” Costa wrote.

He has also detailed out how the team is working on making these emojis pop in apps like Microsoft Teams and how some of the custom designs have been inspired by “the new reality of a hybrid workplace”. Costa added in the blog that Microsoft used tools like Adobe Illustrator, Figma, FontLab, and Maxon’s Cinema 4D, to create the 3D emoji.

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