diff --git a/native/components/emoji-keyboard.react.js b/native/components/emoji-keyboard.react.js
--- a/native/components/emoji-keyboard.react.js
+++ b/native/components/emoji-keyboard.react.js
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 // @flow
 
+import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';
 import * as React from 'react';
-import EmojiPicker from 'rn-emoji-keyboard';
+import EmojiPicker, { useRecentPicksPersistence } from 'rn-emoji-keyboard';
+
+const STORAGE_KEY = 'EMOJI_KEYBOARD_RECENT';
 
 const categoryOrder = [
   'recently_used',
@@ -35,6 +38,26 @@
 function EmojiKeyboard(props: Props): React.Node {
   const { onEmojiSelected, emojiKeyboardOpen, onEmojiKeyboardClose } = props;
 
+  const initializationCallback = React.useCallback(async () => {
+    const recentlyUsedEmojis = await AsyncStorage.getItem(STORAGE_KEY);
+    return JSON.parse(recentlyUsedEmojis ?? '[]');
+  }, []);
+
+  const onStateChangeCallback = React.useCallback(
+    async nextRecentlyUsedEmojis => {
+      await AsyncStorage.setItem(
+        STORAGE_KEY,
+        JSON.stringify(nextRecentlyUsedEmojis),
+      );
+    },
+    [],
+  );
+
+  useRecentPicksPersistence({
+    initialization: initializationCallback,
+    onStateChange: onStateChangeCallback,
+  });
+
   return (
     <EmojiPicker
       onEmojiSelected={onEmojiSelected}