diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 718fb9ed..157e8341 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 - [pull #700] Fix XSS from code spans in image alt text (#699)
 - [pull #701] Allow boolean attribute syntax in `markdown-in-html` extra
 - [pull #704] Fix XSS from smuggling spans into image attributes (#702, #703)
+- [pull #710] Add emoji support (#709)
 
 
 ## python-markdown2 2.5.5
diff --git a/lib/markdown2.py b/lib/markdown2.py
index dc698970..8dd1c48e 100755
--- a/lib/markdown2.py
+++ b/lib/markdown2.py
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
 * break-on-newline: Alias for the on_newline option in the breaks extra.
 * code-friendly: Disable _ and __ for em and strong.
 * cuddled-lists: Allow lists to be cuddled to the preceding paragraph.
+* emojis: add emoji support using emoji codes
 * fenced-code-blocks: Allows a code block to not have to be indented
   by fencing it with '```' on a line before and after. Based on
   <http://github.github.com/github-flavored-markdown/> with support for
@@ -3503,6 +3504,33 @@ def test(self, text: str):
         )
 
 
+class Emojis(Extra):
+    '''
+    Enable emoji support in markdown text using the [emoji library](https://github.com/carpedm20/emoji)
+    '''
+    name = 'emojis'
+    order = (), (Stage.PARAGRAPHS,)
+
+    def __init__(self, md: Markdown, options: Optional[dict]):
+        super().__init__(md, options)
+        self.options.setdefault('language', 'alias')
+
+    def run(self, text):
+        try:
+            import emoji
+        except ImportError:
+            raise ImportError('the "emoji" extra requires the "emoji" package to be installed')
+
+        if self.options:
+            return emoji.emojize(text, **self.options)
+        return emoji.emojize(text)
+
+    def test(self, text):
+        # emoji identifiers can have all sorts of chars (eg: `:A_button_(blood_type):`)
+        # but they all start and end with a colon and don't have spaces in as far as I can see
+        return re.search(r':[\S]+:', text)
+
+
 class FencedCodeBlocks(Extra):
     '''
     Allows a code block to not have to be indented
@@ -4324,6 +4352,7 @@ def test(self, text):
 Alerts.register()
 Breaks.register()
 CodeFriendly.register()
+Emojis.register()
 FencedCodeBlocks.register()
 Latex.register()
 LinkPatterns.register()
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 05dba326..bb8da93d 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
     "code_syntax_highlighting": ["pygments>=2.7.3"],
     "wavedrom": ["wavedrom"],
     "latex": ['latex2mathml; python_version>="3.8.1"'],
+    "emojis": ["emoji"]
 }
 # nested listcomp to combine all optional extras into convenient "all" option
 extras_require["all"] = [i for v in tuple(extras_require.values()) for i in v]
diff --git a/test/test.py b/test/test.py
index 995db47a..2874ccc6 100755
--- a/test/test.py
+++ b/test/test.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ def setup():
     setup()
     default_tags = []
     warnings = []
-    for extra_lib in ('pygments', 'wavedrom', 'latex2mathml'):
+    for extra_lib in ('pygments', 'wavedrom', 'latex2mathml', 'emoji'):
         try:
             mod = importlib.import_module(extra_lib)
         except ImportError:
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/emojis.html b/test/tm-cases/emojis.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e07510cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/emojis.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<p>Hello world 😄</p>
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/emojis.opts b/test/tm-cases/emojis.opts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d9e3951f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/emojis.opts
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"extras": ["emojis"]}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/emojis.tags b/test/tm-cases/emojis.tags
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f8d6d82b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/emojis.tags
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+emoji
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/emojis.text b/test/tm-cases/emojis.text
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6ff60fe0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/emojis.text
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Hello world :smile:
\ No newline at end of file