How to create your own custom emoji on Android

Given that emojis are ubiquitous, custom emojis are a great way to stand out from the crowd, and your Android phone can help you generate just that. While several third-party apps are available, it’s much easier to simply use the default Google keyboard – Gboard – to generate emoji. Here’s how you do that:

Built-in features

If you don’t have Gboard or you uninstalled it, you can download a version from the Play Store for free. Next, set Gboard as your default keyboard so it always pops up when you want to type a message. Doing so will also give you access to your custom emoji library on demand.

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To start creating emoji, open a messaging app or tap on a text field to call Gboard. Tap on the emoji icon (usually a smiley face) on the keyboard to open the emoji menu.

Next, select an emoji. Gboard will immediately throw up variations of said emoji and you can use those as your custom emoji. You could also select a second emoji and Google will mash the two together to create a custom one. This could result in, say, a smiling tree or a frowning face wearing dark glasses. When creating custom emojis, think of the first emoji as the base and the second one as the modifier. You can also experiment with combining already combined emojis to create even more variants or more intense expressions.

Note that tapping send will send this custom emoji as a sticker rather than an emoji.

Using photos as emoji

Another option is to use the Create tool in the Google Messages app. Here you open the app, tap on the emoji icon, and then select Create or Photomoji from the menu.

Now choose a photo from your image gallery. The app will try and detect the subject in your photo and isolate it with an outline to create a sticker that you can send. Tap send and your photomoji will be sent as a sticker. As a bonus, any photomojis you create will be saved for future use.

Third-party apps

Some third-party apps like Samsung’s keyboard on Samsung Galaxy phones or any of several emoji maker apps on the Google Play Store will also work for creating custom emojis. Samsung’s app is a little more nuanced than Google’s in that you can use it to create a custom 3D avatar that can be additionally customised to generate stickers from.

Have fun creating your custom emojis and if you found this guide useful, do share your creations with us!