Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

Someone asked me why they do not get emoji’s properly on their Mac. OK, this caused a wasted 30 minutes of delving into Emojis. So here’s the dump:

1. Macs will automagically convert certain key sequences into emojis and offer them as autocomplete alternatives. If you type :) you will get a smiley emoji. Stackoverflow as a more or less complete list as there is no way to see all the short cuts. But things like (y) will get you a thumbs up. And <3 is a heart.
2. The iPhone works differently, it is sensitive to words and will show icons in autocomplete, so typing heart will give you the option to add a heart emoji. I can’t find the thumbs up one. Again, I can’t seem to find a list.

To get things like favorites, you have to on a Mac click on the upper right icon and this gets you to the character viewer, you will see a recently used list and a favorites like, any character can be added to favorites.