Microsoft employees discover new Teams feature thanks to Pepe the Frog
Microsoft has started internally testing a new custom emoji feature for its Microsoft Teams communications platform. Multiple sources tell The Verge that Microsoft employees learned about the surprise new capability after animated emoji of Pepe the Frog — a meme with a troubled past — started appearing in reactions and messages on early internal versions of Microsoft Teams.
The Pepe the Frog emotes, which are now widely used in Discord servers and on Amazon’s Twitch streaming platform as lighthearted responses, appeared alongside other custom emoji that don’t ship in Microsoft Teams right now. We’re told Microsoft is testing the custom emoji feature in early so-called “dogfood” versions of Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams currently supports GIFs through the Giphy service, but these are separate from the emoji panel that appears within video calls and chat messages on the service. If Microsoft decides to roll this custom emoji feature out to all Teams users, it doesn’t mean that Pepe the Frog memes will ship by default, just the ability to add custom emoji. It will be up to IT admins to approve and allow new custom emoji — much like how Discord and Slack admins manage this.
The addition of Pepe the Frog to internal versions of Microsoft Teams surprised some employees because of the fraught history of this particular meme. While Pepe the Frog is widely used innocently these days, the cartoon frog was also co-opted by white supremacists years ago. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) added Pepe the Frog to its hate symbol database in 2016, but the advocacy group has since teamed with Pepe creator Matt Furie to back a “#SavePepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions.”
Pepe is now used less commonly as a hate symbol than a reaction meme in Twitch chats. “Because so many Pepe the Frog memes are not bigoted in nature, it is important to examine use of the meme only in context,” says the ADL. “The mere fact of posting a Pepe meme does not mean that someone is racist or white supremacist.” The life, death, and rebirth of Pepe was explored in the documentary Feels Good Man.
Microsoft has not yet officially announced custom emoji for Microsoft Teams, and the feature is still in very early testing. Microsoft did acknowledge the highly requested feature had been added to a backlog of new additions seven months ago. Given custom emoji has existed for years in rival platforms like Slack and Discord, it’s more than likely to reach all Microsoft Teams users at some point this year.
We reached out to Microsoft for comment, but the company did not respond in time for publication.
Microsoft has started internally testing a new custom emoji feature for its Microsoft Teams communications platform. Multiple sources tell The Verge that Microsoft employees learned about the surprise new capability after animated emoji of Pepe the Frog — a meme with a troubled past — started appearing in reactions and…
Recent Posts
- Steam Machine and Steam Frame are coming ‘this summer’
- Valve says it’s ready to launch the Steam Machine this summer
- Best Buy slashes up to $400 off Apple tech in a limited-time sale — get AirPods, MacBooks, iPads and Apple Watches from $99.99
- The Instagram Plus subscription has officially launched
- Wired found code for an unreleased facial recognition feature in Meta’s AI app
Archives
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023