diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/BasicMessageComposer.js b/src/components/views/rooms/BasicMessageComposer.js
index 4ec43d8af2..92c2ae29e6 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/BasicMessageComposer.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/BasicMessageComposer.js
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ export default class BasicMessageEditor extends React.Component {
         this._modifiedFlag = false;
         this._isIMEComposing = false;
         this._hasTextSelected = false;
+        this._emoticonSettingHandle = null;
     }
 
     _replaceEmoticon = (caretPosition, inputType, diff) => {
@@ -437,18 +438,25 @@ export default class BasicMessageEditor extends React.Component {
         this.setState({completionIndex});
     }
 
+    _configureEmoticonAutoReplace() {
+        const shouldReplace = SettingsStore.getValue('MessageComposerInput.autoReplaceEmoji');
+        this.props.model.setTransformCallback(shouldReplace ? this._replaceEmoticon : null);
+    }
+
     componentWillUnmount() {
         this._editorRef.removeEventListener("input", this._onInput, true);
         this._editorRef.removeEventListener("compositionstart", this._onCompositionStart, true);
         this._editorRef.removeEventListener("compositionend", this._onCompositionEnd, true);
+        SettingsStore.unwatchSetting(this._emoticonSettingHandle);
     }
 
     componentDidMount() {
         const model = this.props.model;
         model.setUpdateCallback(this._updateEditorState);
-        if (SettingsStore.getValue('MessageComposerInput.autoReplaceEmoji')) {
-            model.setTransformCallback(this._replaceEmoticon);
-        }
+        this._emoticonSettingHandle = SettingsStore.watchSetting('MessageComposerInput.autoReplaceEmoji', null, () => {
+            this._configureEmoticonAutoReplace();
+        });
+        this._configureEmoticonAutoReplace();
         const partCreator = model.partCreator;
         // TODO: does this allow us to get rid of EditorStateTransfer?
         // not really, but we could not serialize the parts, and just change the autoCompleter