diff --git a/emoji/emojiSet.go b/emoji/emojiSet.go
index e955ac0d54b70ef3450704e2bc56c80f18ff0fdd..f3715b154d279e39217df7b0363fe1dda06f7fcc 100644
--- a/emoji/emojiSet.go
+++ b/emoji/emojiSet.go
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"github.com/forPelevin/gomoji"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	jww "github.com/spf13/jwalterweatherman"
 	cEmoji "gitlab.com/elixxir/client/v4/emoji"
 	"strings"
 )
@@ -54,9 +55,13 @@ func (s *Set) SanitizeEmojiMartSet(frontendEmojiSetJson []byte) ([]byte, error)
 			"failed to unmarshal emoji-mart set JSON: %+v", err)
 	}
 
+	jww.INFO.Printf("Finding incompatible emojis...")
+
 	// Find all incompatible emojis in the front end set
 	emojisToRemove := s.findIncompatibleEmojis(&frontEndEmojiSet)
 
+	jww.INFO.Printf("Removing incompatible emojis...")
+
 	// Remove all incompatible emojis from the set
 	removeIncompatibleEmojis(&frontEndEmojiSet, emojisToRemove)
 
diff --git a/emoji/main.go b/emoji/main.go
index fec1a1928f6eee9ed27c03bdf2c7e364d1dde3e4..faa3ee3ee1edfe76142639bab3f85644407326b9 100644
--- a/emoji/main.go
+++ b/emoji/main.go
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ var sanitizeEmojis = &cobra.Command{
 			initLog(viper.GetInt(logFileFlag), logFile)
 		}
 
+		jww.INFO.Printf("Retrieving emoji-mart JSON file...")
+
 		// Retrieve emoji-mart file from URL
 		resp, err := http.Get(emojiMartUrl)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -64,6 +66,8 @@ var sanitizeEmojis = &cobra.Command{
 				"Failed to retrieve emoji-mart JSON from URL: %+v", err)
 		}
 
+		jww.INFO.Printf("Reading emoji-mart JSON file into bytes...")
+
 		// Read HTTP response into byte slice
 		var buf bytes.Buffer
 		_, err = buf.ReadFrom(resp.Body)
@@ -75,6 +79,8 @@ var sanitizeEmojis = &cobra.Command{
 		}
 		emojiMartJson := buf.Bytes()
 
+		jww.INFO.Printf("Sanitizing emoji-mart JSON...")
+
 		// Sanitize the JSON file
 		backendSet := NewSet()
 		sanitizedJSON, err := backendSet.SanitizeEmojiMartSet(emojiMartJson)
@@ -82,6 +88,8 @@ var sanitizeEmojis = &cobra.Command{
 			jww.FATAL.Panicf("Failed to sanitize emoji-mart list: %+v", err)
 		}
 
+		jww.INFO.Printf("Outputting sanitized emoji JSON to file...")
+
 		// Write sanitized JSON to file
 		sanitizedOutputFilePath := viper.GetString(sanitizedOutputFlag)
 		err = utils.WriteFileDef(sanitizedOutputFilePath, sanitizedJSON)