diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 9c55ff43c8..d5cad9dc0d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@
     "classnames": "^2.1.2",
     "commonmark": "^0.28.1",
     "counterpart": "^0.18.0",
-    "emojione": "2.2.7",
+    "emojibase-data": "^4.0.0",
+    "emojibase-regex": "^4.0.0",
     "file-saver": "^1.3.3",
     "filesize": "3.5.6",
     "flux": "2.1.1",
diff --git a/res/fonts/Twemoji_Mozilla/TwemojiMozilla.woff2 b/res/fonts/Twemoji_Mozilla/TwemojiMozilla.woff2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..70f9b03c4d
Binary files /dev/null and b/res/fonts/Twemoji_Mozilla/TwemojiMozilla.woff2 differ
diff --git a/res/themes/light/css/_fonts.scss b/res/themes/light/css/_fonts.scss
index ac15847e44..ffd3dffee1 100644
--- a/res/themes/light/css/_fonts.scss
+++ b/res/themes/light/css/_fonts.scss
@@ -15,22 +15,22 @@
 /* the 'src' links are relative to the bundle.css, which is in a subdirectory.
  */
 @font-face {
-  font-family: 'Nunito';
-  font-style: normal;
-  font-weight: 400;
-  src: url('$(res)/fonts/Nunito/Nunito-Regular.ttf') format('truetype');
+    font-family: 'Nunito';
+    font-style: normal;
+    font-weight: 400;
+    src: url('$(res)/fonts/Nunito/Nunito-Regular.ttf') format('truetype');
 }
 @font-face {
-  font-family: 'Nunito';
-  font-style: normal;
-  font-weight: 600;
-  src: url('$(res)/fonts/Nunito/Nunito-SemiBold.ttf') format('truetype');
+    font-family: 'Nunito';
+    font-style: normal;
+    font-weight: 600;
+    src: url('$(res)/fonts/Nunito/Nunito-SemiBold.ttf') format('truetype');
 }
 @font-face {
-  font-family: 'Nunito';
-  font-style: normal;
-  font-weight: 700;
-  src: url('$(res)/fonts/Nunito/Nunito-Bold.ttf') format('truetype');
+    font-family: 'Nunito';
+    font-style: normal;
+    font-weight: 700;
+    src: url('$(res)/fonts/Nunito/Nunito-Bold.ttf') format('truetype');
 }
 
 /*
@@ -51,3 +51,13 @@
     font-weight: 700;
     font-style: normal;
 }
+
+/* a COLR/CPAL version of Twemoji used for consistent cross-browser emoji
+ * taken from https://github.com/mozilla/twemoji-colr
+ * using the fix from https://github.com/mozilla/twemoji-colr/issues/50 to
+ * work on macOS
+ */
+@font-face {
+    font-family: "Twemoji Mozilla";
+    src: url('$(res)/fonts/Twemoji_Mozilla/TwemojiMozilla.woff2') format('woff2');
+}
diff --git a/res/themes/light/css/_light.scss b/res/themes/light/css/_light.scss
index d11dfebda3..c4de8ecdd3 100644
--- a/res/themes/light/css/_light.scss
+++ b/res/themes/light/css/_light.scss
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 // XXX: check this?
 /* Nunito lacks combining diacritics, so these will fall through
    to the next font.  Helevetica's diacritics however do not combine
-   nicely with Open Sans (on OSX, at least) and result in a huge
-   horizontal mess.  Arial empirically gets it right, hence prioritising
-   Arial here. */
-$font-family: 'Nunito', Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif;
+   nicely (on OSX, at least) and result in a huge horizontal mess.
+   Arial empirically gets it right, hence prioritising Arial here. */
+/* We fall through to Twemoji for emoji rather than falling through
+   to native Emoji fonts (if any) to ensure cross-browser consistency */
+$font-family: Nunito, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif, 'Twemoji Mozilla';
 
 // unified palette
 // try to use these colors when possible
diff --git a/scripts/emoji-data-strip.js b/scripts/emoji-data-strip.js
index 42bf2ac2de..2b9b67c859 100644
--- a/scripts/emoji-data-strip.js
+++ b/scripts/emoji-data-strip.js
@@ -1,4 +1,12 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
+
+// This generates src/stripped-emoji.json as used by the EmojiProvider autocomplete
+// provider.
+
+// FIXME: we no longer depends on emojione, so this generation script no longer
+// works, but the expectation is that we will shift to using emojimart or
+// similar as an emoji picker before this next needs to be run again.
+
 const EMOJI_DATA = require('emojione/emoji.json');
 const EMOJI_SUPPORTED = Object.keys(require('emojione').emojioneList);
 const fs = require('fs');
diff --git a/src/HtmlUtils.js b/src/HtmlUtils.js
index 1032c52e32..d53d8e4864 100644
--- a/src/HtmlUtils.js
+++ b/src/HtmlUtils.js
@@ -27,22 +27,18 @@ import linkifyMatrix from './linkify-matrix';
 import _linkifyElement from 'linkifyjs/element';
 import _linkifyString from 'linkifyjs/string';
 import escape from 'lodash/escape';
-import emojione from 'emojione';
 import classNames from 'classnames';
 import MatrixClientPeg from './MatrixClientPeg';
 import url from 'url';
 
-linkifyMatrix(linkify);
+import EMOJIBASE from 'emojibase-data/en/compact.json';
+import EMOJI_REGEX from 'emojibase-regex';
 
-emojione.imagePathSVG = 'emojione/svg/';
-// Store PNG path for displaying many flags at once (for increased performance over SVG)
-emojione.imagePathPNG = 'emojione/png/';
-// Use SVGs for emojis
-emojione.imageType = 'svg';
+linkifyMatrix(linkify);
 
 // Anything outside the basic multilingual plane will be a surrogate pair
 const SURROGATE_PAIR_PATTERN = /([\ud800-\udbff])([\udc00-\udfff])/;
-// And there a bunch more symbol characters that emojione has within the
+// And there a bunch more symbol characters that emojibase has within the
 // BMP, so this includes the ranges from 'letterlike symbols' to
 // 'miscellaneous symbols and arrows' which should catch all of them
 // (with plenty of false positives, but that's OK)
@@ -54,15 +50,13 @@ const ZWJ_REGEX = new RegExp("\u200D|\u2003", "g");
 // Regex pattern for whitespace characters
 const WHITESPACE_REGEX = new RegExp("\\s", "g");
 
-// And this is emojione's complete regex
-const EMOJI_REGEX = new RegExp(emojione.unicodeRegexp+"+", "gi");
 const COLOR_REGEX = /^#[0-9a-fA-F]{6}$/;
 
 const PERMITTED_URL_SCHEMES = ['http', 'https', 'ftp', 'mailto', 'magnet'];
 
 /*
  * Return true if the given string contains emoji
- * Uses a much, much simpler regex than emojione's so will give false
+ * Uses a much, much simpler regex than emojibase's so will give false
  * positives, but useful for fast-path testing strings to see if they
  * need emojification.
  * unicodeToImage uses this function.
@@ -71,73 +65,26 @@ export function containsEmoji(str) {
     return SURROGATE_PAIR_PATTERN.test(str) || SYMBOL_PATTERN.test(str);
 }
 
-/* modified from https://github.com/Ranks/emojione/blob/master/lib/js/emojione.js
- * because we want to include emoji shortnames in title text
- */
-function unicodeToImage(str, addAlt) {
-    if (addAlt === undefined) addAlt = true;
-
-    let replaceWith; let unicode; let short; let fname;
-    const mappedUnicode = emojione.mapUnicodeToShort();
-
-    str = str.replace(emojione.regUnicode, function(unicodeChar) {
-        if ( (typeof unicodeChar === 'undefined') || (unicodeChar === '') || (!(unicodeChar in emojione.jsEscapeMap)) ) {
-            // if the unicodeChar doesnt exist just return the entire match
-            return unicodeChar;
-        } else {
-            // get the unicode codepoint from the actual char
-            unicode = emojione.jsEscapeMap[unicodeChar];
-
-            short = mappedUnicode[unicode];
-            fname = emojione.emojioneList[short].fname;
-
-            // depending on the settings, we'll either add the native unicode as the alt tag, otherwise the shortname
-            const title = mappedUnicode[unicode];
-
-            if (addAlt) {
-                const alt = (emojione.unicodeAlt) ? emojione.convert(unicode.toUpperCase()) : mappedUnicode[unicode];
-                replaceWith = `<img class="mx_emojione" title="${title}" alt="${alt}" src="${emojione.imagePathSVG}${fname}.svg${emojione.cacheBustParam}"/>`;
-            } else {
-                replaceWith = `<img class="mx_emojione" src="${emojione.imagePathSVG}${fname}.svg${emojione.cacheBustParam}"/>`;
-            }
-            return replaceWith;
-        }
-    });
-
-    return str;
-}
-
 /**
  * Returns the shortcode for an emoji character.
  *
  * @param {String} char The emoji character
  * @return {String} The shortcode (such as :thumbup:)
  */
-export function unicodeToShort(char) {
-    const unicode = emojione.jsEscapeMap[char];
-    return emojione.mapUnicodeToShort()[unicode];
+export function unicodeToShortcode(char) {
+    const data = EMOJIBASE.find((e)=>{ e.unicode === char });
+    return (data && data.shortcodes ? data.shortcodes[0] : '';
 }
 
 /**
- * Given one or more unicode characters (represented by unicode
- * character number), return an image node with the corresponding
- * emoji.
+ * Returns the unicode character for an emoji shortcode
  *
- * @param alt {string} String to use for the image alt text
- * @param useSvg {boolean} Whether to use SVG image src. If False, PNG will be used.
- * @param unicode {integer} One or more integers representing unicode characters
- * @returns A img node with the corresponding emoji
+ * @param {String} shortcode The shortcode (such as :thumbup:)
+ * @return {String} The emoji character
  */
-export function charactersToImageNode(alt, useSvg, ...unicode) {
-    const fileName = unicode.map((u) => {
-        return u.toString(16);
-    }).join('-');
-    const path = useSvg ? emojione.imagePathSVG : emojione.imagePathPNG;
-    const fileType = useSvg ? 'svg' : 'png';
-    return <img
-        alt={alt}
-        src={`${path}${fileName}.${fileType}${emojione.cacheBustParam}`}
-    />;
+export function shortcodeToUnicode(shortcode) {
+    const data = EMOJIBASE.find((e)=>{ e.shortcodes && e.shortcodes.contains(shortcode) });
+    return data.unicode;
 }
 
 export function processHtmlForSending(html: string): string {
@@ -444,13 +391,10 @@ class TextHighlighter extends BaseHighlighter {
  * opts.disableBigEmoji: optional argument to disable the big emoji class.
  * opts.stripReplyFallback: optional argument specifying the event is a reply and so fallback needs removing
  * opts.returnString: return an HTML string rather than JSX elements
- * opts.emojiOne: optional param to do emojiOne (default true)
  * opts.forComposerQuote: optional param to lessen the url rewriting done by sanitization, for quoting into composer
  */
 export function bodyToHtml(content, highlights, opts={}) {
     const isHtmlMessage = content.format === "org.matrix.custom.html" && content.formatted_body;
-
-    const doEmojiOne = opts.emojiOne === undefined ? true : opts.emojiOne;
     let bodyHasEmoji = false;
 
     let sanitizeParams = sanitizeHtmlParams;
@@ -481,28 +425,12 @@ export function bodyToHtml(content, highlights, opts={}) {
         if (opts.stripReplyFallback && formattedBody) formattedBody = ReplyThread.stripHTMLReply(formattedBody);
         strippedBody = opts.stripReplyFallback ? ReplyThread.stripPlainReply(content.body) : content.body;
 
-        if (doEmojiOne) {
-            bodyHasEmoji = containsEmoji(isHtmlMessage ? formattedBody : content.body);
-        }
+        bodyHasEmoji = containsEmoji(isHtmlMessage ? formattedBody : content.body);
 
         // Only generate safeBody if the message was sent as org.matrix.custom.html
         if (isHtmlMessage) {
             isDisplayedWithHtml = true;
             safeBody = sanitizeHtml(formattedBody, sanitizeParams);
-        } else {
-            // ... or if there are emoji, which we insert as HTML alongside the
-            // escaped plaintext body.
-            if (bodyHasEmoji) {
-                isDisplayedWithHtml = true;
-                safeBody = sanitizeHtml(escape(strippedBody), sanitizeParams);
-            }
-        }
-
-        // An HTML message with emoji
-        //  or a plaintext message with emoji that was escaped and sanitized into
-        //  HTML.
-        if (bodyHasEmoji) {
-            safeBody = unicodeToImage(safeBody);
         }
     } finally {
         delete sanitizeParams.textFilter;
@@ -545,12 +473,6 @@ export function bodyToHtml(content, highlights, opts={}) {
         <span className={className} dir="auto">{ strippedBody }</span>;
 }
 
-export function emojifyText(text, addAlt) {
-    return {
-        __html: unicodeToImage(escape(text), addAlt),
-    };
-}
-
 /**
  * Linkifies the given string. This is a wrapper around 'linkifyjs/string'.
  *
diff --git a/src/RichText.js b/src/RichText.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 3e8f834da6..0000000000
--- a/src/RichText.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-/*
-Copyright 2015 - 2017 OpenMarket Ltd
-Copyright 2017 Vector Creations Ltd
-Copyright 2018 New Vector Ltd
-
-Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
-    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
-Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-limitations under the License.
-*/
-
-import * as emojione from 'emojione';
-
-
-export function unicodeToEmojiUri(str) {
-    const mappedUnicode = emojione.mapUnicodeToShort();
-
-    // remove any zero width joiners/spaces used in conjugate emojis as the emojione URIs don't contain them
-    return str.replace(emojione.regUnicode, function(unicodeChar) {
-        if ((typeof unicodeChar === 'undefined') || (unicodeChar === '') || (!(unicodeChar in emojione.jsEscapeMap))) {
-            // if the unicodeChar doesn't exist just return the entire match
-            return unicodeChar;
-        } else {
-            // get the unicode codepoint from the actual char
-            const unicode = emojione.jsEscapeMap[unicodeChar];
-
-            const short = mappedUnicode[unicode];
-            const fname = emojione.emojioneList[short].fname;
-
-            return emojione.imagePathSVG+fname+'.svg'+emojione.cacheBustParam;
-        }
-    });
-}
diff --git a/src/autocomplete/EmojiProvider.js b/src/autocomplete/EmojiProvider.js
index 704cdbd55d..50da9266dd 100644
--- a/src/autocomplete/EmojiProvider.js
+++ b/src/autocomplete/EmojiProvider.js
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ limitations under the License.
 import React from 'react';
 import { _t } from '../languageHandler';
 import AutocompleteProvider from './AutocompleteProvider';
-import {shortnameToUnicode, asciiRegexp, unicodeRegexp} from 'emojione';
 import QueryMatcher from './QueryMatcher';
 import sdk from '../index';
 import {PillCompletion} from './Components';
@@ -27,7 +26,11 @@ import type {Completion, SelectionRange} from './Autocompleter';
 import _uniq from 'lodash/uniq';
 import _sortBy from 'lodash/sortBy';
 import SettingsStore from "../settings/SettingsStore";
+import { shortcodeToUnicode } from './HtmlUtils';
 
+import UNICODE_REGEX from 'emojibase-regex';
+import EMOTICON_REGEX from 'emojibase-regex/emoticon';
+import SHORTCODE_REGEX from 'emojibase-regex/shortcode';
 import EmojiData from '../stripped-emoji.json';
 
 const LIMIT = 20;
@@ -44,15 +47,15 @@ const CATEGORY_ORDER = [
     'modifier',
 ];
 
-// Match for ":wink:" or ascii-style ";-)" provided by emojione
+// Match for ":wink:" or ascii-style ";-)" provided by emojibase
 // (^|\s|(emojiUnicode)) to make sure we're either at the start of the string or there's a
 // whitespace character or an emoji before the emoji. The reason for unicodeRegexp is
 // that we need to support inputting multiple emoji with no space between them.
-const EMOJI_REGEX = new RegExp('(?:^|\\s|' + unicodeRegexp + ')(' + asciiRegexp + '|:[+-\\w]*:?)$', 'g');
+const EMOJI_REGEX = new RegExp('(?:^|\\s|' + UNICODE_REGEX + ')(' + EMOTICON_REGEX + '|:[+-\\w]*:?)$', 'g');
 
 // We also need to match the non-zero-length prefixes to remove them from the final match,
 // and update the range so that we don't replace the whitespace or the previous emoji.
-const MATCH_PREFIX_REGEX = new RegExp('(\\s|' + unicodeRegexp + ')');
+const MATCH_PREFIX_REGEX = new RegExp('(\\s|' + UNICODE_REGEX + ')');
 
 const EMOJI_SHORTNAMES = Object.keys(EmojiData).map((key) => EmojiData[key]).sort(
     (a, b) => {
@@ -101,8 +104,6 @@ export default class EmojiProvider extends AutocompleteProvider {
             return []; // don't give any suggestions if the user doesn't want them
         }
 
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('views.elements.EmojiText');
-
         let completions = [];
         const {command, range} = this.getCurrentCommand(query, selection);
         if (command) {
@@ -133,12 +134,12 @@ export default class EmojiProvider extends AutocompleteProvider {
             completions = _sortBy(_uniq(completions), sorters);
 
             completions = completions.map((result) => {
-                const {shortname} = result;
-                const unicode = shortnameToUnicode(shortname);
+                const { shortname } = result;
+                const unicode = shortcodeToUnicode(shortname);
                 return {
                     completion: unicode,
                     component: (
-                        <PillCompletion title={shortname} initialComponent={<EmojiText style={{maxWidth: '1em'}}>{ unicode }</EmojiText>} />
+                        <PillCompletion title={shortname} initialComponent={<span style={{maxWidth: '1em'}}>{ unicode }</span>} />
                     ),
                     range,
                 };
diff --git a/src/components/structures/RoomStatusBar.js b/src/components/structures/RoomStatusBar.js
index 1df0581b89..b30fc49c56 100644
--- a/src/components/structures/RoomStatusBar.js
+++ b/src/components/structures/RoomStatusBar.js
@@ -303,9 +303,7 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
     },
 
     // return suitable content for the main (text) part of the status bar.
-    _getContent: function() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
-
+    _getContent: function() {s
         if (this._shouldShowConnectionError()) {
             return (
                 <div className="mx_RoomStatusBar_connectionLostBar">
diff --git a/src/components/views/avatars/BaseAvatar.js b/src/components/views/avatars/BaseAvatar.js
index 47de7c9dc4..5a6c5ca581 100644
--- a/src/components/views/avatars/BaseAvatar.js
+++ b/src/components/views/avatars/BaseAvatar.js
@@ -166,7 +166,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
     },
 
     render: function() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         const imageUrl = this.state.imageUrls[this.state.urlsIndex];
 
         const {
@@ -178,13 +177,13 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
         if (imageUrl === this.state.defaultImageUrl) {
             const initialLetter = this._getInitialLetter(name);
             const textNode = (
-                <EmojiText className="mx_BaseAvatar_initial" aria-hidden="true"
+                <span className="mx_BaseAvatar_initial" aria-hidden="true"
                     style={{ fontSize: (width * 0.65) + "px",
                     width: width + "px",
                     lineHeight: height + "px" }}
                 >
                     { initialLetter }
-                </EmojiText>
+                </span>
             );
             const imgNode = (
                 <img className="mx_BaseAvatar_image" src={imageUrl}
diff --git a/src/components/views/elements/EmojiText.js b/src/components/views/elements/EmojiText.js
deleted file mode 100644
index b7f3e45321..0000000000
--- a/src/components/views/elements/EmojiText.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
-/*
- Copyright 2016 Aviral Dasgupta
- Copyright 2017 New Vector Ltd
-
- Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
- http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
- Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- limitations under the License.
- */
-
-import React from 'react';
-import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
-import {emojifyText, containsEmoji} from '../../../HtmlUtils';
-
-export default function EmojiText(props) {
-    const {element, children, addAlt, ...restProps} = props;
-
-    // fast path: simple regex to detect strings that don't contain
-    // emoji and just return them
-    if (containsEmoji(children)) {
-        restProps.dangerouslySetInnerHTML = emojifyText(children, addAlt);
-        return React.createElement(element, restProps);
-    } else {
-        return React.createElement(element, restProps, children);
-    }
-}
-
-EmojiText.propTypes = {
-    element: PropTypes.string,
-    children: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
-};
-
-EmojiText.defaultProps = {
-    element: 'span',
-    addAlt: true,
-};
diff --git a/src/components/views/elements/MemberEventListSummary.js b/src/components/views/elements/MemberEventListSummary.js
index 3c58f90a2b..dcf8aba88c 100644
--- a/src/components/views/elements/MemberEventListSummary.js
+++ b/src/components/views/elements/MemberEventListSummary.js
@@ -114,13 +114,9 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             return null;
         }
 
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
-
         return (
             <span className="mx_TextualEvent mx_MemberEventListSummary_summary">
-                <EmojiText>
-                    { summaries.join(", ") }
-                </EmojiText>
+                { summaries.join(", ") }
             </span>
         );
     },
diff --git a/src/components/views/groups/GroupInviteTile.js b/src/components/views/groups/GroupInviteTile.js
index 8482bce593..843bb29055 100644
--- a/src/components/views/groups/GroupInviteTile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/groups/GroupInviteTile.js
@@ -117,7 +117,6 @@ export default React.createClass({
 
     render: function() {
         const BaseAvatar = sdk.getComponent('avatars.BaseAvatar');
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
 
         const groupName = this.props.group.name || this.props.group.groupId;
         const httpAvatarUrl = this.props.group.avatarUrl ?
@@ -129,9 +128,9 @@ export default React.createClass({
             'mx_RoomTile_badgeShown': this.state.badgeHover || this.state.menuDisplayed,
         });
 
-        const label = <EmojiText element="div" title={this.props.group.groupId} className={nameClasses} dir="auto">
+        const label = <div title={this.props.group.groupId} className={nameClasses} dir="auto">
             { groupName }
-        </EmojiText>;
+        </div>;
 
         const badgeEllipsis = this.state.badgeHover || this.state.menuDisplayed;
         const badgeClasses = classNames('mx_RoomTile_badge mx_RoomTile_highlight', {
diff --git a/src/components/views/groups/GroupMemberInfo.js b/src/components/views/groups/GroupMemberInfo.js
index a25d4271ed..34a7e139fd 100644
--- a/src/components/views/groups/GroupMemberInfo.js
+++ b/src/components/views/groups/GroupMemberInfo.js
@@ -180,7 +180,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             this.props.groupMember.displayname || this.props.groupMember.userId
         );
 
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         const GeminiScrollbarWrapper = sdk.getComponent('elements.GeminiScrollbarWrapper');
         return (
             <div className="mx_MemberInfo">
@@ -189,7 +188,7 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
                         <img src={require("../../../../res/img/cancel.svg")} width="18" height="18" className="mx_filterFlipColor" />
                     </AccessibleButton>
                     { avatarElement }
-                    <EmojiText element="h2">{ groupMemberName }</EmojiText>
+                    <h2>{ groupMemberName }</h2>
 
                     <div className="mx_MemberInfo_profile">
                         <div className="mx_MemberInfo_profileField">
diff --git a/src/components/views/groups/GroupRoomInfo.js b/src/components/views/groups/GroupRoomInfo.js
index df1803fa11..db060218d4 100644
--- a/src/components/views/groups/GroupRoomInfo.js
+++ b/src/components/views/groups/GroupRoomInfo.js
@@ -149,7 +149,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
     },
 
     render: function() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         const AccessibleButton = sdk.getComponent('elements.AccessibleButton');
         const InlineSpinner = sdk.getComponent('elements.InlineSpinner');
         const GeminiScrollbarWrapper = sdk.getComponent("elements.GeminiScrollbarWrapper");
@@ -221,7 +220,7 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
                     </AccessibleButton>
                     { avatarElement }
 
-                    <EmojiText element="h2">{ groupRoomName }</EmojiText>
+                    <h2>{ groupRoomName }</h2>
 
                     <div className="mx_MemberInfo_profile">
                         <div className="mx_MemberInfo_profileField">
diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/ReactionsRowButtonTooltip.js b/src/components/views/messages/ReactionsRowButtonTooltip.js
index 4f26cea708..5a71bbdf84 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/ReactionsRowButtonTooltip.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/ReactionsRowButtonTooltip.js
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
 
 import MatrixClientPeg from '../../../MatrixClientPeg';
 import sdk from '../../../index';
-import { unicodeToShort } from '../../../HtmlUtils';
+import { unicodeToShortcode } from '../../../HtmlUtils';
 import { _t } from '../../../languageHandler';
 
 export default class ReactionsRowButtonTooltip extends React.PureComponent {
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ export default class ReactionsRowButtonTooltip extends React.PureComponent {
                 const { name } = room.getMember(reactionEvent.getSender());
                 senders.push(name);
             }
-            const shortName = unicodeToShort(content) || content;
+            const shortName = unicodeToShortcode(content) || content;
             tooltipLabel = <div>{_t(
                 "<reactors/><reactedWith>reacted with %(shortName)s</reactedWith>",
                 {
diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/SenderProfile.js b/src/components/views/messages/SenderProfile.js
index 75898736f1..2ccf5a3315 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/SenderProfile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/SenderProfile.js
@@ -95,7 +95,6 @@ export default React.createClass({
     },
 
     render() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         const {mxEvent} = this.props;
         const colorClass = getUserNameColorClass(mxEvent.getSender());
         const name = mxEvent.sender ? mxEvent.sender.name : mxEvent.getSender();
@@ -117,7 +116,7 @@ export default React.createClass({
             />;
         }
 
-        const nameElem = <EmojiText key='name'>{ name || '' }</EmojiText>;
+        const nameElem = name || '';
 
         // Name + flair
         const nameFlair = <span>
diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js b/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js
index ea7f634691..3d9807878d 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/TextualBody.js
@@ -463,7 +463,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
     },
 
     render: function() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         const mxEvent = this.props.mxEvent;
         const content = mxEvent.getContent();
 
@@ -502,12 +501,12 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
                 return (
                     <span ref="content" className="mx_MEmoteBody mx_EventTile_content">
                         *&nbsp;
-                        <EmojiText
+                        <span
                             className="mx_MEmoteBody_sender"
                             onClick={this.onEmoteSenderClick}
                         >
                             { name }
-                        </EmojiText>
+                        </span>
                         &nbsp;
                         { body }
                         { widgets }
diff --git a/src/components/views/messages/TextualEvent.js b/src/components/views/messages/TextualEvent.js
index 6c87000615..c94e79f2d9 100644
--- a/src/components/views/messages/TextualEvent.js
+++ b/src/components/views/messages/TextualEvent.js
@@ -31,11 +31,10 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
     },
 
     render: function() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         const text = TextForEvent.textForEvent(this.props.mxEvent);
         if (text == null || text.length === 0) return null;
         return (
-            <EmojiText element="div" className="mx_TextualEvent">{ text }</EmojiText>
+            <div className="mx_TextualEvent">{ text }</div>
         );
     },
 });
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/Autocomplete.js b/src/components/views/rooms/Autocomplete.js
index a19a4eaad0..466deeba28 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/Autocomplete.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/Autocomplete.js
@@ -256,8 +256,6 @@ export default class Autocomplete extends React.Component {
     }
 
     render() {
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('views.elements.EmojiText');
-
         let position = 1;
         const renderedCompletions = this.state.completions.map((completionResult, i) => {
             const completions = completionResult.completions.map((completion, i) => {
@@ -282,7 +280,7 @@ export default class Autocomplete extends React.Component {
 
             return completions.length > 0 ? (
                 <div key={i} className="mx_Autocomplete_ProviderSection">
-                    <EmojiText element="div" className="mx_Autocomplete_provider_name">{ completionResult.provider.getName() }</EmojiText>
+                    <div className="mx_Autocomplete_provider_name">{ completionResult.provider.getName() }</div>
                     { completionResult.provider.renderCompletions(completions) }
                 </div>
             ) : null;
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/EntityTile.js b/src/components/views/rooms/EntityTile.js
index d2ae6217b7..bfeeced339 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/EntityTile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/EntityTile.js
@@ -111,7 +111,6 @@ const EntityTile = React.createClass({
         let nameEl;
         const {name} = this.props;
 
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         if (!this.props.suppressOnHover) {
             const activeAgo = this.props.presenceLastActiveAgo ?
                 (Date.now() - (this.props.presenceLastTs - this.props.presenceLastActiveAgo)) : -1;
@@ -128,24 +127,24 @@ const EntityTile = React.createClass({
             }
             nameEl = (
                 <div className="mx_EntityTile_details">
-                    <EmojiText element="div" className="mx_EntityTile_name" dir="auto">
+                    <div className="mx_EntityTile_name" dir="auto">
                         { name }
-                    </EmojiText>
+                    </div>
                     {presenceLabel}
                 </div>
             );
         } else if (this.props.subtextLabel) {
             nameEl = (
                 <div className="mx_EntityTile_details">
-                    <EmojiText element="div" className="mx_EntityTile_name" dir="auto">
+                    <div className="mx_EntityTile_name" dir="auto">
                         {name}
-                    </EmojiText>
+                    </div>
                     <span className="mx_EntityTile_subtext">{this.props.subtextLabel}</span>
                 </div>
             );
         } else {
             nameEl = (
-                <EmojiText element="div" className="mx_EntityTile_name" dir="auto">{ name }</EmojiText>
+                <div className="mx_EntityTile_name" dir="auto">{ name }</div>
             );
         }
 
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js b/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js
index f38e3c3946..2267c942ba 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/EventTile.js
@@ -674,14 +674,13 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
 
         switch (this.props.tileShape) {
             case 'notif': {
-                const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
                 const room = this.props.matrixClient.getRoom(this.props.mxEvent.getRoomId());
                 return (
                     <div className={classes}>
                         <div className="mx_EventTile_roomName">
-                            <EmojiText element="a" href={permalink} onClick={this.onPermalinkClicked}>
+                            <a href={permalink} onClick={this.onPermalinkClicked}>
                                 { room ? room.name : '' }
-                            </EmojiText>
+                            </a>
                         </div>
                         <div className="mx_EventTile_senderDetails">
                             { avatar }
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MemberInfo.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MemberInfo.js
index b9eea2b455..3c098b3d7a 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MemberInfo.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MemberInfo.js
@@ -978,7 +978,6 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
         }
 
         const GeminiScrollbarWrapper = sdk.getComponent("elements.GeminiScrollbarWrapper");
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
 
         let backButton;
         if (this.props.member.roomId) {
@@ -993,7 +992,7 @@ module.exports = withMatrixClient(React.createClass({
                     <div className="mx_MemberInfo_name">
                         { backButton }
                         { e2eIconElement }
-                        <EmojiText element="h2">{ memberName }</EmojiText>
+                        <h2>{ memberName }</h2>
                     </div>
                     { avatarElement }
                     <div className="mx_MemberInfo_container">
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
index e54ddd6787..536c077a06 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
@@ -51,10 +51,9 @@ import ContentMessages from '../../../ContentMessages';
 
 import {MATRIXTO_URL_PATTERN} from '../../../linkify-matrix';
 
-import {
-    asciiRegexp, unicodeRegexp, shortnameToUnicode,
-    asciiList, mapUnicodeToShort, toShort,
-} from 'emojione';
+import EMOJIBASE from 'emojibase-data/en/compact.json';
+import EMOTICON_REGEX from 'emojibase-regex/emoticon';
+
 import SettingsStore, {SettingLevel} from "../../../settings/SettingsStore";
 import {makeUserPermalink} from "../../../matrix-to";
 import ReplyPreview from "./ReplyPreview";
@@ -63,9 +62,7 @@ import ReplyThread from "../elements/ReplyThread";
 import {ContentHelpers} from 'matrix-js-sdk';
 import AccessibleButton from '../elements/AccessibleButton';
 
-const EMOJI_UNICODE_TO_SHORTNAME = mapUnicodeToShort();
-const REGEX_EMOJI_WHITESPACE = new RegExp('(?:^|\\s)(' + asciiRegexp + ')\\s$');
-const EMOJI_REGEX = new RegExp(unicodeRegexp, 'g');
+const REGEX_EMOJI_WHITESPACE = new RegExp('(?:^|\\s)(' + EMOTICON_REGEX + ')\\s$');
 
 const TYPING_USER_TIMEOUT = 10000; const TYPING_SERVER_TIMEOUT = 30000;
 
@@ -273,9 +270,8 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
                                 case 'emoji':
                                     // XXX: apparently you can't return plain strings from serializer rules
                                     // until https://github.com/ianstormtaylor/slate/pull/1854 is merged.
-                                    // So instead we temporarily wrap emoji from RTE in an arbitrary tag
-                                    // (<b/>).  <span/> would be nicer, but in practice it causes CSS issues.
-                                    return <b>{ obj.data.get('emojiUnicode') }</b>;
+                                    // So instead we temporarily wrap emoji from RTE in a span.
+                                    return <span>{ obj.data.get('emojiUnicode') }</span>;
                             }
                             return this.renderNode({
                                 node: obj,
@@ -375,7 +371,6 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
                 const html = HtmlUtils.bodyToHtml(payload.event.getContent(), null, {
                     forComposerQuote: true,
                     returnString: true,
-                    emojiOne: false,
                 });
                 const fragment = this.html.deserialize(html);
                 // FIXME: do we want to put in a permalink to the original quote here?
@@ -540,10 +535,7 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
                 // The first matched group includes just the matched plaintext emoji
                 const emojiMatch = REGEX_EMOJI_WHITESPACE.exec(text.slice(0, currentStartOffset));
                 if (emojiMatch) {
-                    // plaintext -> hex unicode
-                    const emojiUc = asciiList[emojiMatch[1]];
-                    // hex unicode -> shortname -> actual unicode
-                    const unicodeEmoji = shortnameToUnicode(EMOJI_UNICODE_TO_SHORTNAME[emojiUc]);
+                    const unicodeEmoji = EMOJIBASE.find(e => e.emoticon && e.emoticon.contains(emoijMatch[1]));
 
                     const range = Range.create({
                         anchor: {
@@ -561,54 +553,6 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
             }
         }
 
-        // emojioneify any emoji
-        let foundEmoji;
-        do {
-            foundEmoji = false;
-
-            for (const node of editorState.document.getTexts()) {
-                if (node.text !== '' && HtmlUtils.containsEmoji(node.text)) {
-                    let match;
-                    EMOJI_REGEX.lastIndex = 0;
-                    while ((match = EMOJI_REGEX.exec(node.text)) !== null) {
-                        const range = Range.create({
-                            anchor: {
-                                key: node.key,
-                                offset: match.index,
-                            },
-                            focus: {
-                                key: node.key,
-                                offset: match.index + match[0].length,
-                            },
-                        });
-                        const inline = Inline.create({
-                            type: 'emoji',
-                            data: { emojiUnicode: match[0] },
-                        });
-                        change = change.insertInlineAtRange(range, inline);
-                        editorState = change.value;
-
-                        // if we replaced an emoji, start again looking for more
-                        // emoji in the new editor state since doing the replacement
-                        // will change the node structure & offsets so we can't compute
-                        // insertion ranges from node.key / match.index anymore.
-                        foundEmoji = true;
-                        break;
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-        } while (foundEmoji);
-
-        // work around weird bug where inserting emoji via the macOS
-        // emoji picker can leave the selection stuck in the emoji's
-        // child text.  This seems to happen due to selection getting
-        // moved in the normalisation phase after calculating these changes
-        if (editorState.selection.anchor.key &&
-            editorState.document.getParent(editorState.selection.anchor.key).type === 'emoji') {
-            change = change.moveToStartOfNextText();
-            editorState = change.value;
-        }
-
         if (this.props.onInputStateChanged && editorState.blocks.size > 0) {
             let blockType = editorState.blocks.first().type;
             // console.log("onInputStateChanged; current block type is " + blockType + " and marks are " + editorState.activeMarks);
@@ -1295,7 +1239,7 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
         // Move selection to the end of the selected history
         const change = editorState.change().moveToEndOfNode(editorState.document);
 
-        // We don't call this.onChange(change) now, as fixups on stuff like emoji
+        // We don't call this.onChange(change) now, as fixups on stuff like pills
         // should already have been done and persisted in the history.
         editorState = change.value;
 
@@ -1473,20 +1417,8 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
                            </a>;
                 }
             }
-            case 'emoji': {
-                const { data } = node;
-                const emojiUnicode = data.get('emojiUnicode');
-                const uri = RichText.unicodeToEmojiUri(emojiUnicode);
-                const shortname = toShort(emojiUnicode);
-                const className = classNames('mx_emojione', {
-                    mx_emojione_selected: isSelected,
-                });
-                const style = {};
-                if (props.selected) style.border = '1px solid blue';
-                return <img className={ className } src={ uri }
-                    title={ shortname } alt={ emojiUnicode } style={style}
-                />;
-            }
+            case 'emoji':
+                return data.get('emojiUnicode');
         }
     };
 
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/ReplyPreview.js b/src/components/views/rooms/ReplyPreview.js
index 7599c5c308..3b7874a875 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/ReplyPreview.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/ReplyPreview.js
@@ -66,13 +66,12 @@ export default class ReplyPreview extends React.Component {
         if (!this.state.event) return null;
 
         const EventTile = sdk.getComponent('rooms.EventTile');
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('views.elements.EmojiText');
 
         return <div className="mx_ReplyPreview">
             <div className="mx_ReplyPreview_section">
-                <EmojiText element="div" className="mx_ReplyPreview_header mx_ReplyPreview_title">
+                <div className="mx_ReplyPreview_header mx_ReplyPreview_title">
                     { '💬 ' + _t('Replying') }
-                </EmojiText>
+                </div>
                 <div className="mx_ReplyPreview_header mx_ReplyPreview_cancel">
                     <img className="mx_filterFlipColor" src={require("../../../../res/img/cancel.svg")} width="18" height="18"
                          onClick={cancelQuoting} />
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/RoomHeader.js b/src/components/views/rooms/RoomHeader.js
index 435b41f828..a40746dd04 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/RoomHeader.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/RoomHeader.js
@@ -147,7 +147,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
 
     render: function() {
         const RoomAvatar = sdk.getComponent("avatars.RoomAvatar");
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
 
         let searchStatus = null;
         let cancelButton = null;
@@ -191,10 +190,10 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             roomName = this.props.room.name;
         }
 
-        const emojiTextClasses = classNames('mx_RoomHeader_nametext', { mx_RoomHeader_settingsHint: settingsHint });
+        const textClasses = classNames('mx_RoomHeader_nametext', { mx_RoomHeader_settingsHint: settingsHint });
         const name =
             <div className="mx_RoomHeader_name" onClick={this.props.onSettingsClick}>
-                <EmojiText dir="auto" element="div" className={emojiTextClasses} title={roomName}>{ roomName }</EmojiText>
+                <div dir="auto" className={textClasses} title={roomName}>{ roomName }</div>
                 { searchStatus }
             </div>;
 
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.js b/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.js
index 93b4a59fca..f67a7d55c7 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/RoomTile.js
@@ -342,7 +342,6 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             badge = <div className={badgeClasses}>{ badgeContent }</div>;
         }
 
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
         let label;
         let subtextLabel;
         let tooltip;
@@ -354,14 +353,7 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             });
 
             subtextLabel = subtext ? <span className="mx_RoomTile_subtext">{ subtext }</span> : null;
-
-            if (this.state.selected) {
-                const nameSelected = <EmojiText>{ name }</EmojiText>;
-
-                label = <div title={name} className={nameClasses} dir="auto">{ nameSelected }</div>;
-            } else {
-                label = <EmojiText element="div" title={name} className={nameClasses} dir="auto">{ name }</EmojiText>;
-            }
+            label = <div title={name} className={nameClasses} dir="auto">{ nameSelected }</div>;
         } else if (this.state.hover) {
             const Tooltip = sdk.getComponent("elements.Tooltip");
             tooltip = <Tooltip className="mx_RoomTile_tooltip" label={this.props.room.name} dir="auto" />;
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/WhoIsTypingTile.js b/src/components/views/rooms/WhoIsTypingTile.js
index eb5e14876d..08fc6d2c70 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/WhoIsTypingTile.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/WhoIsTypingTile.js
@@ -212,15 +212,13 @@ module.exports = React.createClass({
             return (<div className="mx_WhoIsTypingTile_empty" />);
         }
 
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
-
         return (
             <li className="mx_WhoIsTypingTile">
                 <div className="mx_WhoIsTypingTile_avatars">
                     { this._renderTypingIndicatorAvatars(usersTyping, this.props.whoIsTypingLimit) }
                 </div>
                 <div className="mx_WhoIsTypingTile_label">
-                    <EmojiText>{ typingString }</EmojiText>
+                    { typingString }
                 </div>
             </li>
         );
diff --git a/src/components/views/settings/KeyBackupPanel.js b/src/components/views/settings/KeyBackupPanel.js
index 2ba05a0e6b..d8ed959dae 100644
--- a/src/components/views/settings/KeyBackupPanel.js
+++ b/src/components/views/settings/KeyBackupPanel.js
@@ -174,14 +174,13 @@ export default class KeyBackupPanel extends React.PureComponent {
         } else if (this.state.loading) {
             return <Spinner />;
         } else if (this.state.backupInfo) {
-            const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('elements.EmojiText');
             let clientBackupStatus;
             let restoreButtonCaption = _t("Restore from Backup");
 
             if (MatrixClientPeg.get().getKeyBackupEnabled()) {
                 clientBackupStatus = <div>
                     <p>{encryptedMessageAreEncrypted}</p>
-                    <p>{_t("This device is backing up your keys. ")}<EmojiText>✅</EmojiText></p>
+                    <p>{_t("This device is backing up your keys. ")}✅</p>
                 </div>;
             } else {
                 clientBackupStatus = <div>
diff --git a/src/components/views/verification/VerificationShowSas.js b/src/components/views/verification/VerificationShowSas.js
index a2531800e5..e7846a0199 100644
--- a/src/components/views/verification/VerificationShowSas.js
+++ b/src/components/views/verification/VerificationShowSas.js
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ export default class VerificationShowSas extends React.Component {
 
     render() {
         const DialogButtons = sdk.getComponent('views.elements.DialogButtons');
-        const EmojiText = sdk.getComponent('views.elements.EmojiText');
 
         let sasDisplay;
         let sasCaption;
@@ -44,7 +43,7 @@ export default class VerificationShowSas extends React.Component {
             const emojiBlocks = this.props.sas.emoji.map(
                 (emoji, i) => <div className="mx_VerificationShowSas_emojiSas_block" key={i}>
                     <div className="mx_VerificationShowSas_emojiSas_emoji">
-                        <EmojiText addAlt={false}>{emoji[0]}</EmojiText>
+                        { emoji[0] }
                     </div>
                     <div className="mx_VerificationShowSas_emojiSas_label">
                         {_t(capFirst(emoji[1]))}