diff --git a/Session/Conversations/Context Menu/ContextMenuVC.swift b/Session/Conversations/Context Menu/ContextMenuVC.swift
index 206901b28..524d923bd 100644
--- a/Session/Conversations/Context Menu/ContextMenuVC.swift	
+++ b/Session/Conversations/Context Menu/ContextMenuVC.swift	
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ final class ContextMenuVC : UIViewController {
         self.dismiss = dismiss
         super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
         Storage.read { transaction in
-            self.recentEmoji = Array(Storage.shared.getRecentEmoji(transaction: transaction)[...5])
+            self.recentEmoji = Array(Storage.shared.getRecentEmoji(withDefaultEmoji: true, transaction: transaction)[...5])
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/Session/Conversations/Emoji Picker/EmojiPickerCollectionView.swift b/Session/Conversations/Emoji Picker/EmojiPickerCollectionView.swift
index 6eea609b1..7bb1f358b 100644
--- a/Session/Conversations/Emoji Picker/EmojiPickerCollectionView.swift	
+++ b/Session/Conversations/Emoji Picker/EmojiPickerCollectionView.swift	
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ class EmojiPickerCollectionView: UICollectionView {
         tapGestureRecognizer.delegate = self
         
         Storage.read { transaction in
-            self.recentEmoji = Storage.shared.getRecentEmoji(transaction: transaction)
+            self.recentEmoji = Storage.shared.getRecentEmoji(withDefaultEmoji: false, transaction: transaction)
 
             // Some emoji have two different code points but identical appearances. Let's remove them!
             // If we normalize to a different emoji than the one currently in our array, we want to drop
diff --git a/Session/Emoji/Storage+Emoji.swift b/Session/Emoji/Storage+Emoji.swift
index 35db167db..69cf017b7 100644
--- a/Session/Emoji/Storage+Emoji.swift
+++ b/Session/Emoji/Storage+Emoji.swift
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@ extension Storage {
     private static let emojiPickerCollection = "EmojiPickerCollection"
     private static let recentEmojiKey = "recentEmoji"
     
-    func getRecentEmoji(transaction: YapDatabaseReadTransaction) -> [EmojiWithSkinTones] {
+    func getRecentEmoji(withDefaultEmoji: Bool, transaction: YapDatabaseReadTransaction) -> [EmojiWithSkinTones] {
         var rawRecentEmoji = transaction.object(forKey: Self.recentEmojiKey, inCollection: Self.emojiPickerCollection) as? [String] ?? []
         let defaultEmoji = ["🙈", "🙉", "🙊", "😈", "🥸", "🐀"].filter{ !rawRecentEmoji.contains($0) }
         
-        if rawRecentEmoji.count < 6 {
+        if rawRecentEmoji.count < 6 && withDefaultEmoji {
             rawRecentEmoji.append(contentsOf: defaultEmoji[..<(defaultEmoji.count - rawRecentEmoji.count)])
         }
         
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ extension Storage {
     }
     
     func recordRecentEmoji(_ emoji: EmojiWithSkinTones, transaction: YapDatabaseReadWriteTransaction) {
-        let recentEmoji = getRecentEmoji(transaction: transaction)
+        let recentEmoji = getRecentEmoji(withDefaultEmoji: false, transaction: transaction)
         guard recentEmoji.first != emoji else { return }
         guard emoji.isNormalized else {
             recordRecentEmoji(emoji.normalized, transaction: transaction)