Microsoft has been busy this week working on new experiences for Microsoft Teams. Today, Microsoft has announced you can now choose your skin tone for your emojis, reactions, and everywhere else in Teams, including meetings, chat, and channels.
Being able to choose your own skin tone allows you to better represent your appearance and express yourself more authentically in virtual meetings. Skin tones also contribute to a much more inclusive working environment.
Note that skin tones are consistent throughout all platforms regardless of operating system.
You have a couple of ways to set your skin tone; you can head over to settings > appearance and accessibility and then select your desired skin tone, as referenced in the screenshot below.
The second option is to set your skin tone directly in the emoji reaction menus. Just hover over a message in a chat and select the Emojis, Gifs, and Stickers button in the message box. Select Customize next to the search box, choose your skin tone, and press save.
To use the new feature, you need to be a member of the Teams Public Preview or a Microsoft 365 Targeted Release. You must use the new Teams client for Windows, macOS, Android, or the web. Not all meeting participants are required to use the same version. To enable preview features IT amins must enable Show preview features in the update policy.
