An unexpected feature accidentally made its way into VALORANT with this week’s patch, allowing players to use emojis in the text chat and cause a bit of chaos. To contain it, Riot Games is already working to remove the feature, but it might come back in a more refined form.
In an X post on March 4, VALORANT product manager Stephen Kraman stated that Riot is rolling out a fix that will prevent others from seeing messages containing emojis, though you may still see them in your own chats. A follow-up hotfix is planned for tomorrow to remove emojis from the game completely.
However, this might not be the end of the feature. While it made its way into the game unintentionally, the studio head of VALORANT, Anna Donlon, shared that the developer will look into potentially bringing emojis back, except this time in a more controlled environment.
Patch 12.04, which rolled out on March 3, was primarily about revamping the UI in the entire game and giving Killjoy’s turret some quality of life changes. With no mention of changes to the text chat, the emoji feature came as a surprise for everyone playing the game, creating a bunch of funny interactions in matches. This is why the removal of the feature upset some players.
Unfortunately, the emoji feature didn’t have any filters, allowing emoji combinations with inappropriate and outright offensive intent. This is likely why Riot was so quick to limit it. If it ever comes back, expect stricter filters and censorship rules, as well as likely chat restrictions for violating them, similar to how regular text chat currently functions.
