macOS 13 Emoji and Symbols Viewer Shortcut

This guide provides the keyboard shortcuts to open the Emoji & Symbols viewer (Character Viewer) in macOS 13 Ventura, explains how to switch to the expanded symbol menu, and details how to customize these shortcut settings.

Primary Keyboard Shortcut

The universal keyboard shortcut to open the Emoji and Symbols viewer in macOS 13 is:

Control + Command + Space (⌃ + ⌘ + Space)

Pressing these three keys simultaneously while typing in any text field opens a floating pop-up window containing emojis, pictographs, and special characters.

The Globe (Fn) Key Shortcut

On modern Apple keyboards with a Globe icon on the Function key, you can also press:

Globe key (🌐) or Fn

By default on many macOS 13 setups, pressing this single key triggers the emoji palette.

If this does not work, you can configure it via System Settings:

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu ().
2. Select Keyboard in the sidebar.
3. Locate the "Press 🌐 key to" dropdown menu.
4. Set it to "Show Emoji & Symbols".

Accessing the Full Character Viewer

The default pop-up shows a compact emoji picker. To access advanced symbols, currency markers, math symbols, and accented characters:

1. Press Control + Command + Space to open the palette.
2. Click the small window icon in the top-right corner of the pop-up.
3. This expands the menu into the full Character Viewer, allowing you to browse arrows, technical symbols, script types, and custom favorites.
4. Click the same icon again to revert to the compact view.