Google Messages adds spaces to emoticons

Since past 3-6 months [Android Messages app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging) started to insert spaces between characters of my emoticons and also started to remove certain characters, causing garbage to be actually sent: In addition to Google Messages, I am using [Gboard](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.latin) on both devices, so maybe this is a problem with the keyboard app, not with the messaging app. Does anyone know what is this and how to prevent this? At first I thought that this is a problem with my very old Motorla Moto One (first edition, X1941). But now I have migrated to Neffos X9 and I am observing exactly the same behavior.