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 emoji. Noun 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.

*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.

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!

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
.

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.










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
.
