Emoji and symbols

Every emoji and a large set of symbols in one grid: find one by name, press ↵, and it's pasted where you were typing.

Open it

Type emoji (or emojis, symbols) and press ⇥.
Or run the Emoji & Symbols command: type emoji and press ↵ on it.
Or give it a hotkey in Settings → Emoji & Symbols → Picker. Pressed again, the hotkey closes the picker.

The first time you open it, the catalog takes a moment to load. It covers emoji up to Emoji 17.0, plus arrows, currency signs, math, shapes and punctuation, CJK symbols, and keys and technical symbols.

Browse

With nothing typed, the grid shows Pinned, then Frequently Used, then every category. Chips above the grid narrow it to one: All, Pinned and Frequently Used (once they hold something), then Smileys & People, Animals & Nature, Food & Drink, Activity, Travel & Places, Objects, Symbols, Flags, Arrows, Currency, Math, Shapes & Punctuation, CJK Symbols, and Keys & Technical.

Press ⇥ for the next chip and ⇧⇥ for the previous one. The arrow keys move around the grid.

Search

Type a name or a keyword: heart, thumbs, rocket, arrow. Keywords come in your Mac's languages, so you can search in the language you use. A name written between colons, like :smile:, works too. The closest names come first, and among equally good matches, the ones you use most. With a chip chosen, only that category is searched.

Use one

Key	What it does
`↵`	Paste to the app you were in. Needs Accessibility.
`⌘↵`	Copy to Clipboard.
`⇧⌘C`	Copy Code Point, such as `U+1F44B`.
`⇧⌘F`	Pin or unpin it.
`⌥⌘↑` / `⌥⌘↓`	Move a pinned one up or down in Pinned.
`⌘K`	All of these, plus Copy Name, and Skin Tone on emoji that take one.

Each paste or copy counts towards Frequently Used.

Skin tone

Pick a skin tone once and it's used for every emoji that takes one, in the grid and when it's pasted: Default, Light, Medium Light, Medium, Medium Dark or Dark. Change it in Settings → Emoji & Symbols → Picker → Skin tone, or from ⌘K → Skin Tone on any such emoji.

Settings

Open Settings → Emoji & Symbols.

Setting	What it does
Emoji & Symbols (switch at the top)	Off: the picker leaves search and its catalog is released from memory.
Picker → Emoji & Symbols	A hotkey that opens the picker from anywhere.
Picker → Skin tone	The tone used for every emoji that takes one.
Picker → Grid columns	6 to 10 across (default 8). Fewer columns, bigger emoji.