Looking for a better Mac emoji picker?
The built-in panel works. It's just slow: open, search, click, find your place again. If you type emoji more than a few times a day, an inline picker saves the round trip every single time.
What the built-in picker gets wrong
⌃⌘Space opens a floating panel. Your eyes leave the sentence, your hand often ends up on the mouse, and after inserting you re-find your place. None of that is terrible. All of it is friction, dozens of times a day.
What inline autocomplete looks like
Mojito skips the panel. You keep typing — see you soon :wav — and a small autocomplete appears at your cursor with 👋 at the top. Return inserts it. The whole interaction happens inside the text you were already writing, which is why it feels fast — you never leave the sentence.
- Works everywhere — TextEdit, Mail, Notes, Terminal, browsers, Notion. It bows out of apps that already do shortcodes (Slack, Discord) so nothing double-fires.
- Search by meaning —
:happy,:zen, and:celebratework, not just exact codes. Results re-rank by what you actually use. - More than emoji —
::searches every symbol macOS can draw (λ, €, ½, ⌘), and:::is KLIPY-backed GIF search. - Keyboard-first — type, arrows if needed, Return. Skin tone default, custom aliases, and per-app exclusions are in settings.
- Private — matching happens on-device; keystrokes are never logged or sent anywhere. Secure fields are ignored entirely.
- Free — open source (AGPL), no trial, no account. Updates via Sparkle.
Keep the shortcut, change the picker
If ⌃⌘Space or the Globe key is already in your muscle memory, Mojito can take those over too — they'll open a searchable emoji browser instead of the system panel. Shortcodes and the shortcut aren't either/or.
Before you switch
Why does it need accessibility permission?
That's the macOS API for seeing keystrokes and inserting text in other apps — there's no way to do inline autocomplete without it. Matching runs locally, nothing you type is transmitted or stored, and password fields are ignored. The source is public if you'd rather verify than trust.
Does it work in the browser? In the terminal?
Yes and yes — anywhere macOS lets you type, including address bars, web apps, and shells. A live demo of exactly how it behaves is on the home page.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It's AGPL open source with no paid tier. If it earns a spot in your menu bar, a coffee is appreciated.
More guides: Emoji shortcuts on Mac · How to type emoji on a Mac · Emoji shortcode cheat sheet · All guides