Custom Slack Emoji with Noun Project

Add some flair to your Slack workspace with millions of Noun Project icons.

So many workplaces and communities use Slack to communicate on a daily basis, whether it’s across time zones or across tables. What separates Slack from other messaging platforms is its dedication to making communicating fun. At the ❤️ of that experience is emoji. 👌

Many people don’t know you can customize your Slack workspace with custom emojiNoun Project is the peanut butter to Slack’s jelly, and adding custom icon emoji with Noun Project for Mac is just about as easy as making a PB&J.

Prep the Noun Project app

Open up Noun Project for Mac on your desktop. Change the file format to PNG. Change the PNG size to 84px because Slack doesn’t allow you to upload images larger than 128px.

Tip: Set zoom to 50% to see what works well at small sizes

*If you are not a Mac user, you can always use thenounproject.com, just download the PNG icon, and resize it smaller than 128px by 128px.

Customize your workspace

Next, open up Slack. From the main menu select Customize Slack. Then select the Emoji tab. Depending on your team’s settings, you may need administrative privileges. In the text box under 1) Choose a name: type the name that you will use to add the emoji into a message.

Choose something that is easy to type and remember

Select an icon

Keep in mind the icon will be significantly reduced in size. Choosing icons that are completely solid, have high contrast, or thick lines tend to work the best at small sizes. Once you find an icon that works well with the name you chose, drag and drop it on the Choose file button. Click the green Save New Emoji button at the bottom and your new emoji will be saved. Easy as cake, err, sandwiches!

Tip: You can always drag and drop onto file inputs on Mac

Try the dang thing out

Open up a new message with a coworker or friend. Type something witty and use the :name-you-chose: convention to add your new custom Noun Project emoji to your message. Easy peasy. You can also find it in the emoji list under Custom.

Typing a colon starts a search for Slack emoji

Here are some of our favorite icons to add as Slack Emoji

Solid icons with high contrast work best because emoji end up being pretty small. Take some time to search Noun Project to find something that you like, there are over a million to choose from!

What are some of your favorites? Please add some links (and attribution) in the comments below.

Rocks Glass by d͡ʒɛrmi Good
Equality Celebration by Lorie Shaull
Wilson by Benjamin Bours
Step by HeadsOfBirds
Cactus by Andrejs Kirma
Button by Sarah Throne-Ploehn
Drowning by Andrew Doane
Businessmen Dancing by Gan Khoon Lay
Bullseye by Creative Stall
Happy by Gregor Cresnar

Bonus Round: Use it as your status message.

You can even use your new custom emoji to communicate your status. From the main menu, choose Edit status.

Bring your status to a whole new level
Noun Project Team
Noun Project Team

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