Microsoft Asks Social Media Users Whether It Should Revive 'Clippy' The Paperclip

Back in the 1990s, Microsoft had "Assistants" for users using Microsoft Office. And among the Assistants, "Clippy' was one that stand out the most.

Taking a form of a paperclip with googly eyes, Clippy can be set to appear to help users using Office software. It was like a virtual assistant, in which users could interact with it. Clippy could help users to do what they want to do in Office products, by giving them suggestions and tips.

When it debuted through Office 97, the Assistants, most notably Clippy, received mixed reviews.

Many people loved the paperclip, saying that it's entertaining as it is useful. Others however, considered Assistants as a distraction and useless.

In the early 2000s, Microsoft joined the hate group, and in 2007, Microsoft officially removed Clippy from its Microsoft Office products.

This time however, the tech giant plans to revive the paperclip, but as an emoji in Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365, a cloud-based subscription service that offers access to productivity apps ranging from Word, Excel, and Outlook, to more business and enterprise-oriented programs and features like Teams, Exchange, and SharePoint.

But before that, it expects people to Like its Twitter post:

Microsoft wants Clippy to make a triumphant return, as part of a broader update to 1,800 emoji, as explained by the company in a Medium blog post:

Microsoft plans to re-introduce Clippy, as the company is updating its emoji library.

And here, Clippy is making its return with a more modern look, to replace that flat paperclip Microsoft is at this time having.

According to Microsoft, this refresh is coming because emojis have evolved over the past few years. And by making them 3D, Microsoft can make the emojis more in line with its Fluent Design design language, which the company calls brighter, vibrant and more human.

"We want the design to uplift and make people happy," said Claire Anderson, Art Director and Emojiologist at Microsoft.

Microsoft is also animating some of them.

"Body language, the surrounding environment, subtle forms of humor — the loss of those impacts our communication greatly, but with a few pixels, we can telegraph our thoughts and feelings in ways that are fun, clear, and emotionally resonant," Anderson said.

"Clippy was one of those features that split users in a very passionate way," once said Office Group Program Manager Jensen Harris in an interview with PCMag.

"There were actually a set of people who did like Clippy, and were sad to see him go. Some of those were people who just like having an animated cat or dog on their desktop, and there were people who liked the interface as a way of getting help. There were also an equal number of people who looked at it as interference or an annoyance, and even though it was easy to turn off, represented something of a bad direction in interface design."

"He's cute, and he was emblematic of a phase of Offices past, which was very successful," Harris continued.

"The Office Assistant was introduced in Office 97, which is the biggest and most successful version that we built of Office, up until Office 2007. They were both important milestones--highlight of the decade releases. From that perspective, it marks the end of a decade of having Clippy around. Although I think that social user interface wasn't ready for the mainstream yet, you have to appreciate the risk that was taken, in attempting to introduce it into the mainstream."

A few years back, Microsoft resurrected Clippy as animated stickers in Microsoft Teams. But the company quickly took it down.

It was realized that the attempt was made by a group of Microsoft employees, who released the sticker pack for Clippy at GitHub.

Clippy also once made a brief return on Apple's MacOS as a standalone app.

This time however, things are different, as Microsoft itself is making the announcement official.

“We wanted people to trust that our new emoji style would recognize their intentions and reflect their humanity. People aren’t perfect, and there is beauty in our originality,” Anderson said.

Microsoft made this announcement, a moment before celebrating World Emoji Day, which takes place every July 17th each year.

Shortly before this, the company published a set of backgrounds for Microsoft Teams to pay homage to a number of fan-favorite products and features.

And Clippy was included there.