Telegram's built-in emoji panel

On both desktop and mobile, tapping the smiley icon next to the message box opens Telegram's emoji panel, organized into categories with a search bar for finding a specific emoji by keyword.

Telegram's emoji status and reactions

Beyond message text, Telegram also uses emoji for profile statuses and quick message reactions — both accessed through similar smiley icons near the relevant part of the interface, separate from the main message composer.

Typing emoji faster on desktop

On the desktop app, typing a colon followed by a short keyword (like typing ':heart') can trigger an autocomplete suggestion for some emoji, similar to how Slack and Discord handle shortcodes, though it's less consistent than a dedicated picker.

Using an online emoji keyboard alongside Telegram

For building a longer emoji message before sending, composing it in a browser-based emoji keyboard first and pasting the finished string into Telegram is often quicker than adding emoji one at a time inside the app.