Does iMessage on macOS have a way to shortcut type an emoji? Most apps use the convention of typing a colon+word+colon (such as :apple:).

You can use Control + Command + Spacebar to open the character viewer.

Use emoji and symbols on Mac - Apple Support

I have this question as well. It is interesting that there are *some* keystrokes that turn into emojis:

• :-)
• :-D
• :3 (a heart)
• ;-)

but there is no list of all emojis with their corresponding keystrokes...

Edit:

Adding what I found online - there are, indeed, some keystrokes, but not all emojis are available:

This list is based off of the old iChat plist and scripting the list of emoticons from Wikipedia into Messages.app:

😊 :)
😉 ;)
😟 :(
😎 B)  
😃 :D  
😩 D:
😋 :d
😜 ;p
😛 :p
😮 :o
😖 :s
😶 :x
😐 :|
😕 :/
😳 :[
😏 :> 
😷 :@  
😘 :*
😬 :!
😇 o:)
😠 >:-o
😈 >:-)
😺 :3  
👍 (y)
👎 (n)
❤️ <3

Note most support using - for a nose so :-) works for 😊 as well.

That is not the same thing. Opening the Emoji/Keyboard viewer is nice, but it's not nearly as fast or seamless as the double-colon shortcut seen on apps like Slack, Notion, etc.

This is fast becoming the norm. It would be lovely to see in macOS as a native feature.

For the record, Microsoft Teams uses an open parentheses for the same effect and it is dramatically less effective.