When you type a standard text emoticon in the Apple Messages app on your Mac—such as typing a colon followed by a parenthesis :) or :(—the software automatically intercepts those keystrokes and replaces them with a graphical, yellow emoji face. While many users love this convenience, it can be highly frustrating if you are trying to send snippets of code, mathematical equations, or simply prefer the aesthetic of classic ASCII text emoticons. Fortunately, you can stop your Mac from making these automatic visual replacements.
How to Disable Automatic Emoji Replacement
Unlike iOS, where emoji replacement is handled by the predictive text keyboard, macOS controls this behaviour through a system-wide text substitution setting that affects Messages and several other built-in Apple apps.
- Click the Apple Logo () in the top-left corner of your Mac’s menu bar.
- Select System Settings… (or System Preferences… on older Macs) from the drop-down menu.
- Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Keyboard.
- In the main window on the right, look for the “Text Input” section.
- Click the Edit… button next to “Input Sources”.
- A new overlay window will appear. Look at the toggle switches provided.
- Find the setting labelled Replace emoji and symbols.
- Toggle the switch to the off position.
- Click Done.
The Result
Open your Messages app and type a classic smiley face :-). It will now remain exactly as you typed it, in plain text, without transforming into a graphic.
If you still want to insert a graphical emoji occasionally, you can always press Control + Command (⌘) + Spacebar on your keyboard to manually open the emoji picker window and select one intentionally.