diff --git a/render-wasm/Cargo.lock b/render-wasm/Cargo.lock
index 05fbd20e6a..ee162a0029 100644
--- a/render-wasm/Cargo.lock
+++ b/render-wasm/Cargo.lock
@@ -465,6 +465,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "macros",
  "skia-safe",
  "thiserror",
+ "unicode-segmentation",
  "uuid",
 ]
 
@@ -702,6 +703,12 @@ version = "1.0.13"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "e91b56cd4cadaeb79bbf1a5645f6b4f8dc5bde8834ad5894a8db35fda9efa1fe"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "unicode-segmentation"
+version = "1.12.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "f6ccf251212114b54433ec949fd6a7841275f9ada20dddd2f29e9ceea4501493"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "uuid"
 version = "1.11.0"
diff --git a/render-wasm/Cargo.toml b/render-wasm/Cargo.toml
index 8c0be81049..22bb7e1590 100644
--- a/render-wasm/Cargo.toml
+++ b/render-wasm/Cargo.toml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ skia-safe = { version = "0.93.1", default-features = false, features = [
   "pdf",
 ] }
 thiserror = "2.0.18"
+unicode-segmentation = "1.12.0"
 uuid = { version = "1.11.0", features = ["v4", "js"] }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
diff --git a/render-wasm/src/render/text_editor.rs b/render-wasm/src/render/text_editor.rs
index d1825aeca8..7adfa5d692 100644
--- a/render-wasm/src/render/text_editor.rs
+++ b/render-wasm/src/render/text_editor.rs
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ fn calculate_cursor_rect(
                 (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, laid_out_para.height())
             } else if char_pos == 0 {
                 let rects = laid_out_para.get_rects_for_range(
-                    0..para.char_utf16_len_at(0),
+                    0..para.char_offset_to_utf16(para.next_grapheme_offset(0)),
                     RectHeightStyle::Max,
                     RectWidthStyle::Tight,
                 );
@@ -173,10 +173,10 @@ fn calculate_cursor_rect(
                     (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, laid_out_para.height())
                 }
             } else if char_pos >= para_char_count {
-                let last_char = para_char_count.saturating_sub(1);
-                let last_start = para.char_offset_to_utf16(last_char);
+                let last_start =
+                    para.char_offset_to_utf16(para.prev_grapheme_offset(para_char_count));
                 let rects = laid_out_para.get_rects_for_range(
-                    last_start..last_start + para.char_utf16_len_at(last_char),
+                    last_start..para.char_offset_to_utf16(para_char_count),
                     RectHeightStyle::Max,
                     RectWidthStyle::Tight,
                 );
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ fn calculate_cursor_rect(
             } else {
                 let utf16_pos = para.char_offset_to_utf16(char_pos);
                 let rects = laid_out_para.get_rects_for_range(
-                    utf16_pos..utf16_pos + para.char_utf16_len_at(char_pos),
+                    utf16_pos..para.char_offset_to_utf16(para.next_grapheme_offset(char_pos)),
                     RectHeightStyle::Max,
                     RectWidthStyle::Tight,
                 );
diff --git a/render-wasm/src/shapes/text.rs b/render-wasm/src/shapes/text.rs
index 8122ee21be..14eb84d347 100644
--- a/render-wasm/src/shapes/text.rs
+++ b/render-wasm/src/shapes/text.rs
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::cell::Cell;
 use std::collections::HashSet;
 use std::rc::Rc;
+use unicode_segmentation::UnicodeSegmentation;
 
 use super::FontFamily;
 use crate::math::Point;
@@ -1470,10 +1471,37 @@ impl Paragraph {
         low
     }
 
-    /// UTF-16 length of the character at `char_offset`, so a caret range covers
-    /// the whole glyph.
-    pub fn char_utf16_len_at(&self, char_offset: usize) -> usize {
-        self.char_offset_to_utf16(char_offset + 1) - self.char_offset_to_utf16(char_offset)
+    fn text(&self) -> String {
+        self.children
+            .iter()
+            .map(|span| span.text.as_str())
+            .collect()
+    }
+
+    /// Char offset of the grapheme boundary before `char_offset`, so emojis
+    /// made of several chars are one step.
+    pub fn prev_grapheme_offset(&self, char_offset: usize) -> usize {
+        let mut boundary = 0;
+        for grapheme in self.text().graphemes(true) {
+            let next = boundary + grapheme.chars().count();
+            if next >= char_offset {
+                break;
+            }
+            boundary = next;
+        }
+        boundary
+    }
+
+    /// Char offset of the grapheme boundary after `char_offset`.
+    pub fn next_grapheme_offset(&self, char_offset: usize) -> usize {
+        let mut boundary = 0;
+        for grapheme in self.text().graphemes(true) {
+            boundary += grapheme.chars().count();
+            if boundary > char_offset {
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+        boundary
     }
 
     pub fn line_height(&self) -> f32 {
@@ -2166,16 +2194,29 @@ mod tests {
 
         assert_eq!(para.char_offset_to_utf16(4), 4);
         assert_eq!(para.char_offset_to_utf16(6), 7);
-        assert_eq!(para.char_utf16_len_at(4), 2);
+        assert_eq!(para.char_offset_to_utf16(5), 6);
         assert_eq!(para.utf16_offset_to_char(7), 6);
     }
 
     #[test]
-    fn char_utf16_len_at_covers_the_whole_glyph() {
-        let para = test_paragraph(&["a😀b"]);
-        assert_eq!(para.char_utf16_len_at(0), 1);
-        assert_eq!(para.char_utf16_len_at(1), 2);
-        assert_eq!(para.char_utf16_len_at(2), 1);
+    fn grapheme_offsets_cross_whole_emojis() {
+        let para = test_paragraph(&["A👍🏽👨\u{200d}👩\u{200d}👧e\u{301}"]);
+        let boundaries = [0, 1, 3, 8, 10];
+        for pair in boundaries.windows(2) {
+            assert_eq!(para.next_grapheme_offset(pair[0]), pair[1]);
+            assert_eq!(para.prev_grapheme_offset(pair[1]), pair[0]);
+        }
+        assert_eq!(para.next_grapheme_offset(2), 3);
+        assert_eq!(para.prev_grapheme_offset(2), 1);
+        assert_eq!(para.next_grapheme_offset(10), 10);
+        assert_eq!(para.prev_grapheme_offset(0), 0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn grapheme_offsets_cross_an_emoji_split_across_spans() {
+        let para = test_paragraph(&["A👍", "🏽B"]);
+        assert_eq!(para.next_grapheme_offset(1), 3);
+        assert_eq!(para.prev_grapheme_offset(3), 1);
     }
 
     fn sample_text_content() -> TextContent {
diff --git a/render-wasm/src/wasm/text/helpers.rs b/render-wasm/src/wasm/text/helpers.rs
index 95bec9f9a6..f9ccfebdd0 100644
--- a/render-wasm/src/wasm/text/helpers.rs
+++ b/render-wasm/src/wasm/text/helpers.rs
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ pub fn move_cursor_backward(
         if cursor.offset > 0 {
             return TextPositionWithAffinity::new_downstream_affinity(
                 cursor.paragraph,
-                cursor.offset - 1,
+                paragraphs[cursor.paragraph].prev_grapheme_offset(cursor.offset),
             );
         }
         if cursor.paragraph > 0 {
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ pub fn move_cursor_forward(
         if cursor.offset < char_count {
             return TextPositionWithAffinity::new_downstream_affinity(
                 cursor.paragraph,
-                cursor.offset + 1,
+                para.next_grapheme_offset(cursor.offset),
             );
         }
         if cursor.paragraph < paragraphs.len() - 1 {
@@ -582,7 +582,7 @@ pub fn delete_char_before(
     if cursor.offset > 0 {
         let paragraphs = text_content.paragraphs_mut();
         let para = &mut paragraphs[cursor.paragraph];
-        let delete_pos = cursor.offset - 1;
+        let delete_pos = para.prev_grapheme_offset(cursor.offset);
         delete_range_in_paragraph(para, delete_pos, cursor.offset);
         Some(TextPositionWithAffinity::new_downstream_affinity(
             cursor.paragraph,
@@ -766,7 +766,8 @@ pub fn delete_char_after(text_content: &mut TextContent, cursor: &TextPositionWi
 
     if cursor.offset < para_len {
         let para = &mut paragraphs[cursor.paragraph];
-        delete_range_in_paragraph(para, cursor.offset, cursor.offset + 1);
+        let end = para.next_grapheme_offset(cursor.offset);
+        delete_range_in_paragraph(para, cursor.offset, end);
     } else if cursor.paragraph < paragraphs.len() - 1 {
         let next_para_idx = cursor.paragraph + 1;
         let next_children: Vec<_> = paragraphs[next_para_idx].children_mut().drain(..).collect();
@@ -946,6 +947,38 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(text_of(&content), "ab");
     }
 
+    fn caret(paragraph: usize, offset: usize) -> TextPositionWithAffinity {
+        TextPositionWithAffinity::new_downstream_affinity(paragraph, offset)
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn delete_char_before_deletes_a_whole_emoji() {
+        for emoji in ["😀", "👍🏽", "👨\u{200d}👩\u{200d}👧", "🇪🇸"] {
+            let text = format!("A{emoji}");
+            let len = text.chars().count();
+            let mut content = content(vec![paragraph(&[text.as_str()])]);
+            let new_caret = delete_char_before(&mut content, &caret(0, len));
+            assert_eq!(text_of(&content), "A");
+            assert_eq!(new_caret, Some(caret(0, 1)));
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn delete_char_after_deletes_a_whole_emoji() {
+        let mut content = content(vec![paragraph(&["A👍🏽B"])]);
+        delete_char_after(&mut content, &caret(0, 1));
+        assert_eq!(text_of(&content), "AB");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn move_cursor_steps_over_a_whole_emoji() {
+        let paragraphs = vec![paragraph(&["A👍🏽B"])];
+        let forward = move_cursor_forward(&caret(0, 1), &paragraphs, false);
+        assert_eq!(forward, caret(0, 3));
+        let backward = move_cursor_backward(&caret(0, 3), &paragraphs, false);
+        assert_eq!(backward, caret(0, 1));
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn delete_selection_range_spanning_several_spans() {
         let mut content = content(vec![paragraph(&["Añ", "adir"])]);