YouTube has started introducing its own set of emotes. YouTube Emotes are emotes similar to those found on Twitch and can be used in chats and comments across the site. Previously, streamers were able to add their own emotes and reactions. Although YouTube’s current emotes are game-centric, more categories are planned for the future.
When you open YouTube’s emoji picker, you’ll notice that a list of YouTube emotes appears below a channel’s existing custom emotes. Autocomplete names for YouTube’s emotes are similar to Twitch’s default system-wide emotes; for instance, typing “:cat-orange-whistling:” will immediately replace the current comment text with an emote depicting an orange cat whistling.
In addition to the expected lack of a pogchamp option, the widely used LUL emote from Twitch has neither been implemented nor made the default on YouTube. However, there are a few that say “game over,” “GG,” or “buffering.”
“We’re starting with emotes created for Gaming but are working on bringing even more themes of emotes in the future, so stay tuned for emotes for even more communities!” YouTube has stated this in a community thread.
Abelle Hayford, Guy Field, and Yujin Won are behind these gaming emotes, so it’s safe to assume that more YouTube Emotes will emerge in the future thanks to a similar focus on the creators.