diff --git a/addons/mail/data/mail_shortcode_data.xml b/addons/mail/data/mail_shortcode_data.xml
index b85479ee30a..2fa9d940466 100644
--- a/addons/mail/data/mail_shortcode_data.xml
+++ b/addons/mail/data/mail_shortcode_data.xml
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@
         </record>
 
         <record id="mail_smiley_heart" model="mail.shortcode">
-            <field name="source">&amp;lt;3</field>
+            <field name="source">&lt;3</field>
             <field name="substitution">&lt;img src='/mail/static/src/img/smiley/heart.png'/&gt;</field>
             <field name="description">Emoji Heart</field>
             <field name="shortcode_type">image</field>
diff --git a/addons/mail/static/src/js/chat_manager.js b/addons/mail/static/src/js/chat_manager.js
index d4e49760a55..17462d8f6d4 100644
--- a/addons/mail/static/src/js/chat_manager.js
+++ b/addons/mail/static/src/js/chat_manager.js
@@ -975,7 +975,7 @@ function init () {
     var load_emojis = session.rpc("/mail/chat_init").then(function (result) {
         emojis = result.emoji;
         _.each(emojis, function(emoji) {
-            emoji_substitutions[emoji.source] = emoji.substitution;
+            emoji_substitutions[_.escape(emoji.source)] = emoji.substitution;
         });
     });