Emoji icon disappeared from Touch Bar?

My question was: Why did my emoji icon disappear from the Touch Bar and how do I get it back? I saw this question posted earlier and it never got answered properly so I thought I'd post my solution here. Maybe it will work for others as well.

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > where it says "Touch Bar shows [dropdown]" choose App Controls from the dropdown menu. Mine had gotten changed to "Expanded Control Strip" somehow and that meant the emoji icon went away.

Also make sure you have the "Show keyboard and emoji view" checked ☑️

hope this helps 😄