How to type emoji on Mac

macOS has a built-in emoji picker that works in almost every app — Notes, Mail, Slack, browsers, terminals. You can reach it with a keyboard shortcut or the Globe key, search for what you want, and insert it in one click.

The keyboard shortcut

From any text field, press:

Control + Command + Space

A small floating panel appears with your recently used emoji at the top. Click any one to insert it at your cursor. That's all there is to the basic flow.

The Globe key (newer Macs)

MacBooks from late 2021 onwards (M1 Pro/Max and newer) have a Globe key at the bottom-left of the keyboard, where older models had a second Fn key. Pressing it once opens the same emoji picker. On these machines it's the quickest route — one key, no chord.

The Globe key can also switch input sources (keyboards) if you have multiple installed. If pressing it switches languages instead of opening the picker, go to System Settings → Keyboard and set "Press Globe key to" to "Show Emoji & Symbols."

The Edit menu

In most native Mac apps, the Edit menu has an Emoji & Symbols item near the bottom. It opens the same picker. This is useful if you forget the shortcut or are in an app that intercepts keyboard shortcuts.

The Character Viewer (full panel)

The small popup has a button in the top-right corner that expands it into the full Character Viewer — a much larger panel with categories, a search bar, and recently used characters.

The Character Viewer is worth knowing about because:

• The search is fast. Type "wave", "check", "arrow", or "fire" and you'll see matching emoji immediately.
• It covers more than emoji — mathematical symbols, currency signs, punctuation, dingbats, and letterlike forms are all in there.
• The "Frequently Used" section at the top updates automatically based on your history.
• You can expand any emoji to see skin tone variants, or right-click it to copy its name or character code.

You can also open the Character Viewer directly by going to System Settings → Keyboard, enabling "Show Input menu in menu bar," then choosing "Show Character Viewer" from that menu bar icon.

Searching for emoji by name

The search box in the Character Viewer is the fastest way to find a specific emoji when you know roughly what you're looking for. A few examples of search terms that work well:

• "thumbs" — finds thumbs up and thumbs down
• "wave" — finds waving hand, water wave, and related glyphs
• "check" — finds the check mark and heavy check mark
• "face" — finds the full range of face emoji
• "star" — finds stars and star-like symbols

Results update as you type. Once you see what you want, click it or press Return to insert it.

What does not work natively

Emoji shortcodes like :thumbsup: or :fire: do not work in macOS text fields. That syntax is app-specific — Slack, Discord, GitHub, and similar tools expand it within their own interface, but it is not a macOS feature. On the Mac, the picker and the keyboard shortcut are your tools.

Spotlight search also does not reliably find emoji by name, so the Character Viewer search is a better option when you need to hunt for something specific.

Emoji in apps that block the shortcut

A small number of apps intercept Control + Command + Space for their own purposes. In those cases, try the Edit menu route, or use the Globe key if your Mac has one. Alternatively, open the Character Viewer from the Input menu in the menu bar — that works regardless of what the frontmost app does with keyboard shortcuts.