Skype had a series of emoji-like emoticons which had their own distinct animated appearance.

A subset of Skype emoticons were available in Microsoft Teams before the 3D versions of Microsoft's new Fluent emoji set began rolling out in February 2022.

The Skype emoticon set differed from the emoji set from parent company Microsoft, which is used as the system-wide emoji font in Windows 10.

Skype used its own system of shortcodes to enter each emoticon, for instance:

• :^) = 🤨
• (cwl) = 😂
• (stareyes) = 🤩

If using a Unicode-compatible emoji code point, this would be given the system-wide emoji appearance: Microsoft set on Skype for Windows, Apple set on Skype for macOS or iOS, Samsung set on phones using OneUI.

The majority of Skype Emoticons had equivalents in the Unicode Standard, while a number of emoticons go beyond what is offered by the standardized emoji set. For example, Skype offered a variety of additional pride-related flags alongside 🏳️‍🌈 Pride and 🏳️‍⚧️ Transgender Flag, such as those shown below.