diff --git a/vector/build.gradle b/vector/build.gradle
index 9f6c91c2b5..4c864f9309 100644
--- a/vector/build.gradle
+++ b/vector/build.gradle
@@ -449,7 +449,7 @@ dependencies {
     // OSS License, gplay flavor only
     gplayImplementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-oss-licenses:17.0.0'
 
-    implementation "androidx.emoji:emoji-appcompat:1.1.0"
+    implementation "androidx.emoji2:emoji2:1.0.0"
     implementation('com.github.BillCarsonFr:JsonViewer:0.7')
 
     // WebRTC
diff --git a/vector/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml b/vector/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
index 6d3c6cdc51..034f9c7619 100644
--- a/vector/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
+++ b/vector/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
@@ -398,6 +398,9 @@
                 android:name="androidx.work.WorkManagerInitializer"
                 android:value="androidx.startup"
                 tools:node="remove" />
+            <!-- We init the lib ourself in EmojiCompatWrapper -->
+            <meta-data android:name="androidx.emoji2.text.EmojiCompatInitializer"
+                tools:node="remove" />
         </provider>
 
         <provider
diff --git a/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/EmojiCompatWrapper.kt b/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/EmojiCompatWrapper.kt
index c1ca3dd21d..995e2e8049 100644
--- a/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/EmojiCompatWrapper.kt
+++ b/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/EmojiCompatWrapper.kt
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ package im.vector.app
 
 import android.content.Context
 import androidx.core.provider.FontRequest
-import androidx.emoji.text.EmojiCompat
-import androidx.emoji.text.FontRequestEmojiCompatConfig
+import androidx.emoji2.text.EmojiCompat
+import androidx.emoji2.text.FontRequestEmojiCompatConfig
 import timber.log.Timber
 import javax.inject.Inject
 import javax.inject.Singleton
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class EmojiCompatWrapper @Inject constructor(private val context: Context) {
     fun safeEmojiSpanify(sequence: CharSequence): CharSequence {
         if (initialized) {
             try {
-                return EmojiCompat.get().process(sequence)
+                return EmojiCompat.get().process(sequence) ?: sequence
             } catch (throwable: Throwable) {
                 // Defensive coding against error (should not happend as it is initialized)
                 Timber.e(throwable, "Failed to init EmojiCompat")
diff --git a/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/features/html/SpanUtils.kt b/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/features/html/SpanUtils.kt
index aab65e8880..9a786af5b4 100644
--- a/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/features/html/SpanUtils.kt
+++ b/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/features/html/SpanUtils.kt
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import android.text.Spanned
 import android.text.style.MetricAffectingSpan
 import android.text.style.StrikethroughSpan
 import android.text.style.UnderlineSpan
-import androidx.emoji.text.EmojiCompat
+import androidx.emoji2.text.EmojiCompat
 import javax.inject.Inject
 
 class SpanUtils @Inject constructor() {