IMPORTANT: The September 2023 update for Windows 10 & 11 seems to have broken the font, making all emojis invisible. To revert to the original Windows emojis, just restore the seguiemj.ttf file (by dragging it to the Windows fonts folder or double-clicking it and pressing "Install") and restart your PC.
Original description:
Get country flags like 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇲🇽 🇵🇹 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇰🇷 🇮🇳 to display properly on windows instead of just seeing placeholders like US, GB, ES!
The file google_emoji_font_for_windows.ttf is all you need.
Installing it overwrites the Windows Emoji font and replaces it with Google's Emoji font (the same one as on Android), which has all country flags and looks better anyway.
(Make a copy of the original Windows emoji font C:\Windows\Fonts\seguiemj.ttf, so you can always revert.)
Restart your computer to make the new font appear everywhere!
(This is just the same steps as described above, but in more detail)
Video tutorial: https://youtu.be/jrs3Y7SIQL0
- Open the windows fonts folder by typing
C:\Windows\Fontsinto the explorer address bar. Find the fontSegoe UI Emoji Regularcopy it and save it as a backup in a different folder.
-
Open in another window the folder where you saved
google_emoji_font_for_windows.ttfand drag it into the font folder.
- You're asked if you want to replace the Segoe UI Emoji font. Choose yes.
- You're done! Restart your computer to make the new emojis appear.
Make sure, you don't simultaneously use other browser extensions for Emojis or different fonts. Also note that some sites load their own emoji fonts and might therefore not work.
Alternatively, if you only want flags in your browser, get the tampermonkey chrome extension (greasemonkey for firefox) and install this script: https://perguto.github.io/tampermonkey/Country%20Emojis.user.js
In case you still see the old emojis after a restart, you can try clearing the font cache. That is, open powershell as administrator:
Then, paste
cd 'C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local'
mv "FontCache" "FontCache_backup"
(CTRL-V might not work, press the right mouse button). (Afterwards, you can remove the backup with
cd 'C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local'
rm "FontCache_backup"
or restore it with
cd 'C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local'
mv -force "FontCache_backup" "FontCache"
)
Google's Emoji Font Noto Color Emoji is free for anyone to download and modify. For Windows, you need their converted version Noto Color Emoji WindowsCompatible as the original font uses Google's own extension of the ttf font format for colors, which differs from Microsoft's.
All I did was changing the font names to that of Microsoft's emoji font "Segoe UI Emoji"
I did this with ttx, a program belonging to the fonttools suite.
ttx is part of the fonttools python package.
Download python, its package manager pip, put them in your PATH and enter
pip install fonttoolsnow by using
ttx somefontfile.ttf
you get an xml file somefontfile.ttx, which you can open with a text editor and edit, the files are rather self-explanatory.
I just replaced the whole <name>...</name> block of Google's NotoColorEmoji_WindowsCompatible.ttf font with that of Microsoft's seguiemj.ttf font.
Finally, convert back with
ttx somefontfile.ttx
and you'll get a file somefontfile.ttf (or somefontfile#1.ttf if that file already exists) which you can install right away.
Apparently, it's also possible to get Twitter's emojis on Windows:
https://github.com/13rac1/twemoji-color-font#install-on-windows