Emojis in Slack aren't just decoration. They're a lightweight communication layer — a way to acknowledge a message without starting a thread, signal status without a wall of text, or inject a little personality into an otherwise ordinary workday. Custom emojis take this a step further: they let your team build a shared vocabulary that's entirely your own.

Teams use custom emojis to mark messages as done, flag something for follow-up, celebrate a win, or just give each other a :doge: when words aren't necessary. Once a great custom emoji gets adopted by your workspace, it starts showing up everywhere — and that's a small but genuine sign of culture.

Here's how to add one.

Before you start

You need permission to add emojis to your workspace. If your Slack admin has restricted this, you'll see a locked state on the emoji upload page — reach out to them to request access or ask them to upload it for you.

Step-by-step: Adding a custom emoji

1

Open the emoji picker

In any message input field, click the smiley face icon on the right side of the text bar. The emoji tray will open.

2

Click "Add Emoji"

Scroll to the bottom of the emoji tray and click the Add Emoji button. This opens the custom emoji upload modal directly in Slack.

3

Upload your image

Drag and drop or select a .png, .jpg, or .gif file. For best results, use a square image at least 128×128px. PNG with a transparent background looks the cleanest — it won't show an awkward white box when used in dark mode.

4

Name your emoji

Give it a short, memorable name — this is what people type to summon it (e.g., :shipit: or :+1team:). Lowercase, no spaces. Hyphens and underscores are fine. The name is permanent once saved, so choose wisely.

5

Save it

Click Save. Your emoji is now available to everyone in the workspace immediately — no restart needed.

Tips for making great custom emojis

Use transparent PNGs

Emojis are used in all kinds of contexts — on light backgrounds, dark backgrounds, colored messages, reactions. A transparent background ensures yours always looks intentional instead of boxed-in. Remove the background with a tool like remove.bg before uploading.

Keep names easy to type

The best emoji names are short (1–2 words), intuitive, and hard to misspell. If it's a person's name, a short phrase like :its-fine: is fine, but try not to make it so obscure that people forget what to type. You can also add an alias to an existing emoji if you want multiple names to point to the same image.

Animated GIFs add energy — use sparingly

Animated custom emojis work well for celebrations and big wins (a spinning 🎉 or a team mascot doing a happy dance). But a workspace full of animated emojis gets visually noisy fast. Save them for the moments that deserve it.

Build a team emoji library

Consider maintaining a pinned doc or channel post listing your workspace's best custom emojis — what they mean and when to use them. Especially useful for new hires who want to fit in but don't know that :lgtm-dog: means "approved and you're wonderful."

Swivel tip

Each slice on a Swivel spin wheel has its own emoji — and custom Slack emojis work here too. If your team has a special emoji for a big win, putting it on the wheel's best prize slice is a nice touch that makes the celebration feel like it belongs to your team specifically.

Where to find custom emoji inspiration

If you're not sure what to upload, a few places to start:

  • Slackmojis.com — one of the most popular community libraries, with thousands of downloadable custom emojis sorted by category
  • Emojipedia — useful for high-res versions of standard emoji if you want to use them as reactions outside their native set
  • Your own brand — your company logo, mascot, or product UI elements can make great custom emojis and reinforce identity in day-to-day messages
  • Inside jokes — the best custom emojis are often the ones with a story. A screengrab from a funny all-hands moment, a teammate's legendary reaction face, a meme that's uniquely yours

Custom emojis are a small thing. But the best workspaces are full of small things that add up to a place people actually enjoy showing up to — and a library of emojis that's distinctly yours is one of those things.

Make your team's wins more fun to celebrate

Swivel brings a spinning prize wheel to Slack — and yes, you can use your custom emojis on the wheel slices.

Add Swivel to Slack — Free