PC Gamer's staff recently had an intense debate about whether a solitary thumbs up emoji was passive aggressive or not. Turns out, we have roughly a 50/50 split, which means one in two thumbs up at PC Gamer is taken as an insult. This is the sort of modern day communication issue you can expect more of in the near-future, as Microsoft has moved to embed an emoji shortcut into the taskbar for quicker access to fun emojis like thumbs-up, insincere rolling on the floor laughing face, and aubergine.
In the latest beta build of Windows 11, Microsoft has rolled out a dedicated emoji button in the taskbar (via Windows Report), which brings up the same emoji window as if a user had pressed the shortcut: Win + . (that's the Windows key and full-stop). This gives access to emojis, emoticons (emojis for people over 30), gifs, clipboard, and special characters.
