I use Gboard which has them in the emoji menu:
ʘ‿ʘ
ᕙ(@°▽°@)ᕗ
(゜o゜;
(^3^♪
¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
(┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻
ಠ︵ಠ
╏ ” ⊚ ͟ʖ ⊚ ” ╏
→(° °)┗
I resisted using emojis for a long time, but I changed jobs during Covid and was working from home permanently. I suddenly worked with a bunch of people I had never met before, and I realized that these people don't know my demeanor, so they don't know how to read my tone. I found emojis are almost necessary to convey tone in this situation. And after that, it kinda stuck.
I read somewhere that proper emojis are more accessible for screen readers, so I've avoided using the old style smiley versions and textmojis ever since.
I generally don't use emojis because I don't think I understand the nuances of emoji well enough to throw them out there for strangers on the internet to interpret.
Whatever suits the point. Emojis are a tool for communication, and should not be shunned just because some butterflies just them as personal flair. Emoticons are classic and hearken back to an earlier time, when things were bespoke and not run through committees for approval before we're allowed to use them. ᕦ⊙෴⊙ᕤ
So far I have used exactly one emoji here, and only once so far.
😉
I'm not a big emoji guy overall, but there are certain jokes and such that require inflection in your voice or certain body language to land properly. Obviously that's not an option in a text basud conversation so emoji fills in that gap for me.
I don't particularly mind people using emojis in other ways, though I do think using a lot of them gives off a weird vibe, but for me personally I mostly prefer to use my words, and using emojis only sparingly makes them feel like they have more impact to me when I do use them.