Microsoft resurrects Clippy in an unexpected place
Clippy will have its own sticker pack as a part of Microsoft Teams
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Microsoft has added Clippy into Microsoft Teams as part of a sticker pack.
“Clippy has agreed to come out of retirement! Whether you loved him or hated him, Clippy is back with a Retro Sticker Pack in Teams”, Microsoft said.
Stickers are used in Microsoft Teams, the video calling software that essentially replaced Skype, for users to better express themselves. These can be found under the sticker tab, and can be searched through for popular memes or other images.
Clippy itself first appeared as a part of Office 97 and aided in Microsoft Word and other programs, but the paperclip, whose proper name was Clippit, was apparently a “polarising” feature, hence its removal.
Users "liked having someone with them, and not being alone," Larson-Green, the executive responsible for Clippy’s departure. But – following complaints that it was irritating and unhelpful – the paperclip was removed in Office 2007.
Melinda Gates was originally part of the Microsoft team that worked on Clippy, and it was an inside joke within Microsoft that Clippy remained present for longer because of her relationship with Bill Gates.
Clippy had appeared in Microsoft Teams briefly in March 2019, where employees had made and released a sticker pack via Microsoft’s official Office developer GitHub page. After 24 hours, the pack disappeared.
“Clippy has been trying to get his job back since 2001, and his brief appearance on GitHub was another attempt,” says a Microsoft spokesperson said. “While we appreciate the effort, we have no plans to bring Clippy to Teams.”
“If this gets 20k likes, we’ll replace the paperclip emoji in Microsoft 365 with Clippy”, Microsoft tweeted in July this year. The tweet received 174,000 likes.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments