EmojiTextView renders Emoji semi-transparent
Because the default text color of my Theme was not pure black this is the fix:
mEmojiTextView.setTextColor(0xff000000); // set view textcolor to black
It's the default text color for material theme which is grey not pure black.Just set your EmojiTextView text color to black.
android:textColor="#FF000000"
<android.support.text.emoji.widget.EmojiTextView android:textAlignment="center" android:text="😍" android:textSize="100dp" android:textColor="#FF000000" android:layout_gravity="center" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" />