Some of us never wanted Clippy on our desktops again, but thanks to Microsoft and dedicated Clippy fans, that's about to change. Fortunately, Clippy won't make a return as an Office Assistant—it will instead make an appearance as the paperclip emoji in Microsoft 365.

Clippy Makes Its Return as an Emoji

In a Tweet, Microsoft said that it will bring Clippy back as an Office emoji if the Tweet hits 20,000 likes. The Tweet hit well over that target within just a couple of hours, skyrocketing into the hundred thousands and beyond.

We were uncertain whether Microsoft was actually being serious about bringing back Clippy, but it turns out that Microsoft has all the intention of doing so.

A post on the Microsoft Design blog revealed Clippy's new emoji form, which replaces the standard paperclip emoji found in Microsoft 365. The previously flat, boring paperclip will now be replaced by Clippy, the friendly, yet highly irritating virtual assisant that plagued Microsoft Office for many years.

Now, you'll get the chance to whip out a Clippy emoji—whether you're using it for irony, or because you want to represent an actual paperclip. "Sure, we may use fewer paper clips today than we did in Clippy's heyday, but we couldn’t resist the nostalgic pull," wrote Claire Anderson, the Art Director at Microsoft.

Microsoft's Other Emojis Undergo a Redesign

The addition of Clippy wasn't the only change that Microsoft has made to its emoji library. Just in time for World Emoji Day on July 17, Microsoft is revamping its library of 1,888 emojis.

The redesigned emojis all have a 3D design with bright, saturated colors to reflect a more playful look. Microsoft also added five new emojis to the bunch, all of which reflect the idea of working from home.

While one emoji depicts a person multitasking from their laptop, another shows a person dancing with a dress shirt and pajama bottoms. Microsoft also added an emoji of a taped-over webcam, as well as an emoji of someone with a muted mic.

While some of the redesigns are already present in Flipgrid, the others will be rolled out to 365 over the next few weeks. The set won't arrive on Microsoft Teams and Windows until the end of 2021, and Yammer and Outlook users will have to wait until 2022.

Do We Really Need an Emoji for Everything?

If things keep going the way they are, we won't even need words to converse anymore. Pretty soon, the Clippy emoji might become the universal symbol for passive-aggressiveness.

Jokes aside, Microsoft's new emojis are likely there to help keep remote workers sane. Working from home can get a bit lonely, so seeing a bright smiling face might add an element of humanity to online-based conversations.