Use emoji and symbols on Mac
You can insert emoji as you type on your Mac, or use the Character Viewer to browse and enter emoji, symbols, accented letters and characters from other languages.
to add an emoji to an email or message straight from the Add emoji as you type
You can quickly replace text with emoji suggestions as you type.
Enter a commonly used word or phrase like “heart” or “thumbs up”, then press Fn-E or
-E.If there are no emoji suggestions for the text you entered, the Character Viewer opens.
Press Return to replace the text with the suggested emoji, or choose another suggestion.
Click
to see additional suggestions and emoji in the Character Viewer.
Tip: You can automatically insert an emoji every time you type certain text (for example, automatically replace XD with 😆). See Replace text and punctuation in documents.
Add emoji and symbols from the Character Viewer
Use the Character Viewer to search for and insert emoji, symbols, characters from other languages and more.
Press Fn-E or
-E, or choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols.Click a character or symbol to add it to your text (or double-click it if the Character Viewer is expanded).
To quickly find a specific emoji, enter a word or phrase (such as “laughing face”) in the search field.
To see variations of an emoji — like different skin tones — click and hold the emoji in the viewer.
Tip: You can also open the Character Viewer directly from the desktop by adding the Input menu to the menu bar. Choose Apple menu 
in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down). Go to Text Input, click Edit, then turn on “Show Input menu in menu bar”.
Make an emoji or symbol a favourite
You can quickly access favourite emoji and symbols from the top of the Character Viewer (they appear below emoji you’ve used recently if the viewer is collapsed). If the viewer is expanded, the Favourites category is shown in the sidebar.
Press Fn-E or
-E, or choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols.If the viewer is collapsed, click
.Select an emoji or symbol, then click Add to Favourites.
Change what’s showing in the Character Viewer
You can expand or collapse the Character Viewer, customise which categories are shown in the viewer, change the size of characters and more.
Press Fn-E or
-E, or choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols.Do any of the following in the Character Viewer:
Expand or collapse it: Click
in the upper-right corner of the viewer.Change which categories appear: Expand the viewer (if it’s collapsed), click the Action pop-up menu
, then choose Customise List. Select or deselect categories, then click Done.Change the size of emoji and symbols: Expand the viewer (if it’s collapsed), click the Action pop-up menu
, then choose Small, Medium or Large.Clear frequently used emoji and symbols: Expand the viewer (if it’s collapsed), click the Action pop-up menu
, then choose Clear Frequently Used Characters.
You can also set an option so you only need to press the Fn key or the Globe key to get emoji suggestions as you type or to open the Character Viewer. To set this option, choose Apple menu in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down). Click the “Press fn key to” or “Press key to” pop-up menu, then choose Show Emoji & Symbols.