How to use plain text smileys (disable automatic emoji substitution) in Messages.app? How to use plain text smileys (disable automatic emoji substitution) in Messages.app? In OS X 10.8 there was a setting for this in the app’s Preferences pane, but in OS X 10.9 that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
Go to the Edit menu, submenu Substitutions, then uncheck Emoji.