Have you ever wondered how you would send animated emotes on Discord?

When it comes to messaging someone or chatting with friends online, nothing can beat expressing yourself with emotes.

All popular social platforms such as Twitter, Twitch, and Discord have their own set of emojis you can indulge yourself with.

In recent times, emotes have evolved from static images to moving ones that give off a better feeling of expression.

Discord is no stranger to animated emojis. Unfortunately, it’s locked behind Discord Nitro.

The good side with all this is that you don’t need Discord Nitro to use animated emoticons, as there are several ways to work around this wall.

How to Use Custom Emotes Without Subscribing to Discord Nitro

One of the key features that Discord Nitro has regarding emotes is the ability to use exclusive animated emotes in the server and to also use the same animated emojis along with normal discord emojis in other servers.

This might make it seem that you need Nitro to use Discord Nitro Emojis, but that’s not entirely the case.

A method to use custom animated Discord emoji no Nitro needed is through the use of Discord bots.

The Discord bot, Not Quite Nitro (NQN), is a popular bot used to work around the Discord Nitro requirement to use Discord Nitro Emoji. We use this in a personal server, and it does the job well.    

Using NQN is quick and easy and doesn’t require anything fancy; it only needs you to have it invited into the server.

Although be that as it may, it also has some limitations, particularly on the emotes you can use.

The main limitation the NQN bot has is how it can only use any emojis in the server it is invited to and any other server you are a member of and have NQN invited.

In this nature, the bot mimics Discord Nitro’s cross-server emoji feature, albeit limited to an extent.

Although more of a preference, your message when posted, using the bot, won’t have any of your profile’s name color and will be tagged with a BOT tag as a feature with NQN is posting a message that is exactly like the original message barring the things mentioned above.

A Quick Guide to NQN

Using NQN within the Discord Server

1. After inviting the bot to the server, you can check your available emotes by simply using the general “/” command used by many bots in DiscordDiscord. Type in “/my_emotes.”

2. By default, the bot will show you the list of available emotes available in the server you typed the command in along with the corresponding command you need to type in to use it.

3. In this screenshot here, you can see me typing in the command for an animated emoji and the bot responding with a message from me with the corresponding emote along with my name.

Using NQN Emojis in other Servers

1. Using NQN Emojis from one server to another is the same as before. To check any compatible servers that you and NQN share click on the drop-down box and select “Mutual Server” instead of “Current Server.”

2. After changing the option, you will see another drop-down box with a list of the servers that have compatible emojis you can use.

3. Using the same command and emote from the server I was just in. On another server, I can freely use the emoji. Like before, the bot sends the message as if it were me but with the same limitation.

And there you have it, an easy way to access Discord Nitro Emojis without the need to have Nitro.

NQN is a good and convenient way to access the emoji feature that Nitro has to offer, and it is also more natural and integrated. I enjoy using it when I want to hype things up on the server.

Alternative Method

If you happen to find NQN a bit limiting with your options, you can try some of these methods to use custom emotes for Discord emojis. No Nitro is needed.

Method 1. Uploading your Emoji

It was mentioned previously that emojis in Discord are essential, just pictures in different file formats with .gif being recommended for animated emotes.

If you want to use animated emotes, you can simply upload them yourself.

You can simply download the emote and use it freely. Make sure the emoji files are in the right file format, especially for the animated ones.

It should be noted that this is limited as the emoji uploaded using this method can’t be treated as part of the message, but as a picture separate from it, it still gets the job done at the end.

Method 2. Emoji.gg

Emoji.gg and NQN can be used in conjunction together. Emoji.gg allows you to add custom emojis from their web collection, including animated ones. Using them in conjunction allows for a wider emoji library to choose from.

Here’s a quick guide on how to use this bot.

1. For example, I want to use this emoji from their website and successfully invite the bot. Click on the “Add using the bot” command on the website.

2. In the pop-up window, you will be given a prompt with the command for the bot to use. Simply copy and enter it on Discord

3. After typing it out, the bot will automatically add it to your server along with the command inside colons (:) to use it. You can check what you have so far by clicking on the emoji icon in the message tab and going over to your server.

4. Typing in the command for animated emojis allows NQN to use it for you in the same similar fashion. 

Normal Discord Emotes VS Nitro Custom Emotes

Discord emotes are divided into 2 categories: the normal or default emotes and custom emotes that are unique in each server.

Each server can have up to 100 emojis along with Discord Nitro emojis.

The key difference between normal DiscordDiscord emotes versus Nitro Custom emotes is that all Discord emotes are static images, while Nitro custom emotes are either static images or animated emojis. Therefore, it is a bit unfortunate that Discord doesn’t have any default animated emotes.

Normal emojis usually use .png, .jpg, or .svg format, which are all static, while animated Discord Nitro emojis use the .gif format, which allows them to be animated. You can actually verify the file format that’s being used by following these steps.

1. Right-click the emote you want to check and select “Open Link.”

2. You will be directed to your web browser with only a picture of the emote. You can check the file format by checking the web address.

3. In the case of the screenshot above, you can see .gif in the web address, which signifies the file format inside the “Save as Type” box.

4. You can save and download the emote to check the format. Your browser should automatically pick the format that matches it. I usually do this when I want to save any funny emojis I find charming and want to use with my friends.

Knowing the difference in file formats and how it works in Discord is key in using Discord Emoji no Nitro is needed as Discord Nitro emoji is usually there only for the convenience of using the feature and is not a strict requirement.