diff --git a/lib/irrlicht/source/Irrlicht/CIrrDeviceAndroid.cpp b/lib/irrlicht/source/Irrlicht/CIrrDeviceAndroid.cpp
index 05c51659d..ceac173ef 100644
--- a/lib/irrlicht/source/Irrlicht/CIrrDeviceAndroid.cpp
+++ b/lib/irrlicht/source/Irrlicht/CIrrDeviceAndroid.cpp
@@ -1300,13 +1300,16 @@ void CIrrDeviceAndroid::fromSTKEditBox(int widget_id, const core::stringw& text,
         return;
     }
 
-    std::vector<char> utf8;
+    // Android use 32bit wchar_t and java use utf16 string
+    // We should not use the modified utf8 from java as it fails for emoji
+    // because it's larger than 16bit
+
+    std::vector<uint16_t> utf16;
     // Use utf32 for emoji later
     static_assert(sizeof(wchar_t) == sizeof(uint32_t), "wchar_t is not 32bit");
-    uint32_t* chars = (uint32_t*)text.c_str();
-    utf8::unchecked::utf32to8(chars, chars + text.size(), back_inserter(utf8));
-    utf8.push_back(0);
-    jstring jstring_text = env->NewStringUTF(utf8.data());
+    const uint32_t* chars = (const uint32_t*)text.c_str();
+    utf8::unchecked::utf32to16(chars, chars + text.size(), back_inserter(utf16));
+    jstring jstring_text = env->NewString((const jchar*)utf16.data(), utf16.size());
 
     env->CallVoidMethod(native_activity, method_id, (jint)widget_id, jstring_text, (jint)selection_start, (jint)selection_end, (jint)type);
     if (was_detached)
diff --git a/src/guiengine/widgets/text_box_widget.cpp b/src/guiengine/widgets/text_box_widget.cpp
index 66ee17a84..b098fa984 100644
--- a/src/guiengine/widgets/text_box_widget.cpp
+++ b/src/guiengine/widgets/text_box_widget.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include "guiengine/widgets/CGUIEditBox.hpp"
 #include "utils/ptr_vector.hpp"
 #include "utils/translation.hpp"
+#include "utils/utf8.h"
 
 #include <IGUIElement.h>
 #include <IGUIEnvironment.h>
@@ -264,13 +265,24 @@ ANDROID_EDITTEXT_CALLBACK(ANDROID_PACKAGE_CALLBACK_NAME)
     if (text == NULL)
         return;
 
-    const char* utf8_text = env->GetStringUTFChars(text, NULL);
-    if (utf8_text == NULL)
+    const uint16_t* utf16_text = (const uint16_t*)env->GetStringChars(text, NULL);
+    if (utf16_text == NULL)
         return;
-
-    // Android use 32bit wchar_t
-    std::u32string to_editbox = StringUtils::utf8ToUtf32(utf8_text);
-    env->ReleaseStringUTFChars(text, utf8_text);
+    const size_t len = env->GetStringLength(text);
+    // Android use 32bit wchar_t and java use utf16 string
+    // We should not use the modified utf8 from java as it fails for emoji
+    // because it's larger than 16bit
+    std::u32string to_editbox;
+    try
+    {
+        utf8::utf16to32(utf16_text, utf16_text + len,
+            back_inserter(to_editbox));
+    }
+    catch (std::exception& e)
+    {
+        (void)e;
+    }
+    env->ReleaseStringChars(text, utf16_text);
 
     GUIEngine::addGUIFunctionBeforeRendering([widget_id, to_editbox, start,
         end, composing_start, composing_end]()