diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/components/emoji-uploader.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/components/emoji-uploader.js
index 371137e4fa0..474aba66dc7 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/components/emoji-uploader.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/components/emoji-uploader.js
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 import Component from "@ember/component";
-import UploadMixin from "discourse/mixins/upload";
+import UppyUploadMixin from "discourse/mixins/uppy-upload";
 import { action } from "@ember/object";
 import discourseComputed from "discourse-common/utils/decorators";
 import { notEmpty } from "@ember/object/computed";
 
 const DEFAULT_GROUP = "default";
 
-export default Component.extend(UploadMixin, {
+export default Component.extend(UppyUploadMixin, {
   type: "emoji",
   uploadUrl: "/admin/customize/emojis",
   hasName: notEmpty("name"),
@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@ export default Component.extend(UploadMixin, {
   emojiGroups: null,
   newEmojiGroups: null,
   tagName: null,
+  preventDirectS3Uploads: true,
 
   didReceiveAttrs() {
     this._super(...arguments);
-
     this.set("newEmojiGroups", this.emojiGroups);
   },
 
@@ -27,10 +27,6 @@ export default Component.extend(UploadMixin, {
     return !this.hasName || this.uploading;
   },
 
-  uploadOptions() {
-    return { sequentialUploads: true };
-  },
-
   @action
   createEmojiGroup(group) {
     this.setProperties({
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/mixins/uppy-upload.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/mixins/uppy-upload.js
index e6d282b988b..efa0b30710b 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/mixins/uppy-upload.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/mixins/uppy-upload.js
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ export default Mixin.create({
   uploadProgress: 0,
   _uppyInstance: null,
   autoStartUploads: true,
+  _inProgressUploads: 0,
   id: null,
 
   // TODO (martin): currently used for backups to turn on auto upload and PUT/XML requests
@@ -137,21 +138,34 @@ export default Mixin.create({
       this.set("uploadProgress", progress);
     });
 
+    this._uppyInstance.on("upload", (data) => {
+      this._inProgressUploads += data.fileIDs.length;
+    });
+
     this._uppyInstance.on("upload-success", (file, response) => {
+      this._inProgressUploads--;
+
       if (this.usingS3Uploads) {
         this.setProperties({ uploading: false, processing: true });
         this._completeExternalUpload(file)
           .then((completeResponse) => {
             this.uploadDone(completeResponse);
-            this._reset();
+
+            if (this._inProgressUploads === 0) {
+              this._reset();
+            }
           })
           .catch((errResponse) => {
             displayErrorForUpload(errResponse, this.siteSettings, file.name);
-            this._reset();
+            if (this._inProgressUploads === 0) {
+              this._reset();
+            }
           });
       } else {
         this.uploadDone(response.body);
-        this._reset();
+        if (this._inProgressUploads === 0) {
+          this._reset();
+        }
       }
     });
 
@@ -160,7 +174,16 @@ export default Mixin.create({
       this._reset();
     });
 
-    if (this.siteSettings.enable_direct_s3_uploads) {
+    // TODO (martin) preventDirectS3Uploads is necessary because some of
+    // the current upload mixin components, for example the emoji uploader,
+    // send the upload to custom endpoints that do fancy things in the rails
+    // controller with the upload or create additional data or records. we
+    // need a nice way to do this on complete-external-upload before we can
+    // allow these other uploaders to go direct to S3.
+    if (
+      this.siteSettings.enable_direct_s3_uploads &&
+      !this.preventDirectS3Uploads
+    ) {
       this._useS3Uploads();
     } else {
       this._useXHRUploads();
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/templates/components/emoji-uploader.hbs b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/templates/components/emoji-uploader.hbs
index a32fe3772ad..4f4bdf782e7 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/templates/components/emoji-uploader.hbs
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/app/templates/components/emoji-uploader.hbs
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
       <label class="btn btn-default btn-primary {{if addDisabled "disabled"}}">
         {{#if uploading}}
           {{d-icon "spinner" class="loading-icon"}}
-          <span>{{i18n "admin.emoji.uploading"}}</span>
+          <span>{{i18n "admin.emoji.uploading"}} {{uploadProgress}}%</span>
         {{else}}
           {{d-icon "plus"}}
           <span>{{i18n "admin.emoji.add"}}</span>
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@
           class="hidden-upload-field"
           disabled={{addDisabled}}
           type="file"
+          multiple="true"
           accept=".png,.gif">
       </label>
     </div>
diff --git a/app/controllers/admin/emojis_controller.rb b/app/controllers/admin/emojis_controller.rb
index 72e1c308011..8320ea340e3 100644
--- a/app/controllers/admin/emojis_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/admin/emojis_controller.rb
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ class Admin::EmojisController < Admin::AdminController
     render_serialized(Emoji.custom, EmojiSerializer, root: false)
   end
 
+  # TODO (martin) Figure out a way that this kind of custom logic can
+  # be run in the ExternalUploadManager when a direct S3 upload is completed,
+  # related to preventDirectS3Uploads in the UppyUploadMixin.
   def create
     file = params[:file] || params[:files].first
     name = params[:name] || File.basename(file.original_filename, ".*")
diff --git a/config/locales/client.en.yml b/config/locales/client.en.yml
index 58e2adf1e3e..56b9810b5fe 100644
--- a/config/locales/client.en.yml
+++ b/config/locales/client.en.yml
@@ -5437,7 +5437,7 @@ en:
 
       emoji:
         title: "Emoji"
-        help: "Add new emoji that will be available to everyone. (PROTIP: drag & drop multiple files at once)"
+        help: "Add new emoji that will be available to everyone. Drag and drop multiple files at once without entering a name to create emojis using their file names."
         add: "Add New Emoji"
         uploading: "Uploading..."
         name: "Name"