I'm using Samsung Galaxy S8+ on Android 7.0 Nougat. When I send a classic emoticon in the text on the stock Messaging app, like one of these:
:-)
;-)
:-P
they will be displayed as an Android head, similar to one of these:
A couple of questions about this:
Is this just something that happens locally on my phone, or is the recipient seeing the same thing?
How do I disable the function in my default SMS app?
I personally find it a bit annoying that the conversion only appears after the message is sent. So, I have no way of knowing that my textual emoticons are going to be supplanted during composition.
Please note: I'm not interested in using a third-party (non-Google/Samsung) SMS app, and I don't want to root my phone.