Emoticons/emojis not being sent via SMS

I have a Lenovo K6 with Android 7 and when I try to send an emoticon from any keyboard like Gboard, Swift or Chrooma (the device does not have a native keyboard) the emoticon does not appear at all to the people I sent it to. For example if I send 'Hi (smileyface emoticon)', only 'Hi' will show up to the recipient but also only 'Hi' appears if I go to messages app and see what I have sent. I have tried lots of emoticons from complex to very simple and I haven't been able to send any. This is not a carrier issue because my previous phone (LG G4) with the same carrier and plan was showing emoticons and they reached the recipient. Is there some setting that I can change so that I will be able to send emoticons through SMS?