Microsoft revealed that it would be redesigning its emoji set and that it will roll out soon, possibly later this year, bringing back a very adorable old Microsoft character, Clippy, too.
Microsoft redesigns its emoji set and hints Clippy return
The tech giant hinted at this first on Wednesday in the following tweet:
If this gets 20k likes, we’ll replace the paperclip emoji in Microsoft 365 with Clippy. pic.twitter.com/6T8ziboguC
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) July 14, 2021
When the tweet appeared on the feeds people were taken aback, some remembering Clippy as super annoying while others completely adored the intelligent user interface from Office 97. Microsoft killed Clippy in Office XP in 2001. They attempted to bring it back in 2019 but quickly shut it down. Now Clippy might come back as an emoji with more new emojis in Office.
“We opted for 3D designs over 2D and chose to animate the majority of our emoji,” Claire Anderson of the Microsoft Design team wrote on Medium.
Microsoft also conducted a study that found 57% of people believe emojis in the workplace are professional and help humanize conversations, CNN reported.
So is Clippy really coming back?
When The Verge‘s Tom Warren dug for more answers about the return of Clippy, Microsoft was rather vague about it.
Microsoft, you playin? pic.twitter.com/66sO6ppzNO
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 14, 2021
“When we looked at redesigning the paper clip, we thought, ‘How could you not?” Anderson said in an interview with CNN.
“It’s a way of honoring where we’ve come from as we also look at a new tech style. .. But like most nostalgic things, we know Clippy can be polarizing,” she said.
The design team said that it has learned that emojis are a really helpful way of expressing one’s self, especially because that skill doesn’t come easy to everyone. They also noted that play in a working environment encourages innovation and that they are not at all unprofessional. In fact, a lot of people like including play in their professional presentations sometimes to drive a certain tone.
