I had the same issue, and found out that it happened on non-retina screens only.
To fix it, we applied a margin
through a media-query like this:
<span class="friends"><span class="emoji">👥</span> Friends</span>
<style>
@media
not screen and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),
not screen and (min-resolution: 192dpi) {
span.emoji {
margin-right: 5px;
}
}
</style>
This is a pretty minimal media-query. You should probably use a more complete one like https://stackoverflow.com/a/31578187/1907212.