New Emoji Icons

In my opinion they aren’t stylized for a professional work environment.

Agreed. It looks as though they took all of the emojis and ran them through AI to make them “friendly.” They don’t look friendly. They appear juvenile.
I honestly do not feel comfortable using them in a work environment anymore, which is disappointing, especially as I did utilize them often.

Also, I noticed that some of the emojis were actually removed as options. Hmm. 
Disappointed in this change, Zoom.

I agree wholeheartedly.  These new emojis are scary and look AI generated in a bad way.  I don’t understand why they would change these from what we had before, they were fine as is.  I would love a way to switch it back to the older versions of emoji’s.  On the phone it still displays as the phone default emoji’s, but I keep scaring myself when I look at it on the laptop.

Zoom has been making a lot of changes to their Zoom Workplaces interface recently and I’ve really started to get annoyed at it.  It doesn’t really feel like they’re changing it for the better, either.

Agreed with all the points here. But aside from the feedback above, the emojis are also simply less clear compared to the original options. Thinking from an accessibility standpoint, this is a problem. I am thankful that Zoom meetings themselves retain the original icons, which folks can quickly and clearly see what’s being conveyed.

Agreed with everything in OP’s post and in all the comments. I hate using the emojis now because they look juvenile and we’re lacking the same options we had prior to this last update. Some emojis don’t even show up if a message was sent via someone’s phone because it doesn’t even “exist” in the Zoom version anymore. Very disappointing.

Another removal from the Emoji’s in Chat:    Country Flags.   Especially in light of the FIFA World Cup, people from all nations enjoy expressing their support before/during/after the competition.  Really, really disappointing that Flags were removed -- yes, they can still be “found” in GIF’s, but it’s not the same at all.  Do Better Zoom!

Very unpleasant emojis and style in general. What’s with the increased white space between chat posts? I feel like I need a bionic finger to scroll now since many sites are filling my desktop screen with useless white space. Condense, people, we need it to condense not spread out, wasting my dwindling desktop space.

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I understand where you're coming from. User interface changes can be quite noticeable, especially when you're used to a particular design.

At the moment, I don't believe Zoom provides an option to switch back to the previous emoji style. However, I think having a setting that lets users choose between the classic and the new emoji designs would be a great feature. It would allow users to personalize their experience without affecting anyone else's interface.

I'd recommend submitting this as feedback through the Zoom desktop app (Help > Give Feedback) or on Zoom's Feature Requests forum. If enough users express the same preference, the Zoom team may consider adding a customization option in a future update.

I agree -- the new emojis are dreadful. It makes me not want to use emojis at all. And I’m having terrible trouble with the new update not allowing badges on the ribbon icon, so I can’t tell when I have messages waiting to be read. I’m REALLY annoyed with the new update!!!