Microsoft is quietly testing a new feature in its popular Teams communication software that could dramatically change the way people interact through the platform – custom emojis.

Employees first spotted the new capabilities after animated versions of Pepe the Frog, the controversial internet meme, and other non-standard emojis began appearing in early internal test versions of Teams. These emotes are commonly found on chat platforms like Discord and Twitch, where users can upload their own images to represent feelings or reactions.

According to sources close to the Teams development team, Microsoft is currently dogfooding the custom emoji feature, meaning employees test new capabilities internally before full public release. Teams currently only support official Unicode emoji and GIFs through integrations like Giphy. This expansion would allow users much more flexibility and personality in their digital communication.

However, with increased freedom comes increased risk. Custom emojis open the door for offensive, inappropriate and confusing usages that would never appear in the official Unicode set. Images like Pepe the Frog have become co-opted by extremist groups, though they originated as harmless internet memes.

Microsoft will need to balance that risk with admin controls and moderation tools before a full public launch. Services like Discord and Slack already allow server owners to approve new emojis and blacklist offensive ones. Teams would likely implement similar governance abilities, especially for large enterprise customers wary of moderation challenges.

For now, the feature remains hidden outside of internal testing. But with an accelerated pace of development, Microsoft could bring custom emoji support to all Teams users sometime in 2024, promising more dynamic and expressive, though potentially complicated, digital communication.