Microsoft added an easy-to-access emoji panel to Windows 10 in the Fall Creators Update. This emoji panel can pop up anywhere you need it to. All you have to do is tap the Win+. keyboard shortcut. The panel features the usual set of emoji sorted into conventional categories. They don’t look the way emoji normally do on an iPhone or an Android phone but they’re all mostly there. Unfortunately, a lot of users who have upgraded to the Fall Creators Update are not seeing the emoji panel. Here’s how to fix the Windows 10 emoji panel not opening.
Windows 10 Emoji Panel Not Opening
For some reason, the emoji panel in Windows 10 is tied to your keyboard’s language. Specifically, if you have anything other than English (United States) set as the input language the emoji panel will not open. To fix this and to change the input language, open the Settings app and go to Time & Language. Go to the Region & language tab, and set English (United States) as the input language.
This ought to do the trick but if it doesn’t, try changing the country or region to the United States too.
Once you’ve changed your language, tap the Win+. key again and the emoji panel will open.
Alternative Solutions
It goes without saying that this solution isn’t exactly a solution. Microsoft has limited the emoji panel to the English (United States) language which is ridiculous. Changing your language just so you can access cartoonish heads isn’t exactly practical. People will need to stick to their French, German, Spanish, etc input languages because that’s what they need to use.
One solution is to wait around for Microsoft to fix this i.e. roll out the ‘feature’ to other languages. There is no timeline on when that will happen.
A better, more practical solution is to use an app called Winmoji to get emoji in Windows 10. This app was released just before Microsoft announced the emoji panel but it is an exceptionally close match to the stock feature. You have to manually paste the emoji and it isn’t automatically inserted like it is with the emoji panel but the app is far more practical than having to use a different input language.
There might be some exceptions to this ‘bug’. According to a few Reddit users, the emoji panel is opening even though they aren’t using English (United States) as their input language. Everyone who is unable to access the emoji panel however are able to do so when they make the language change.
