re = /<(?:[^<>]*?\salt="([^"]*)")?[^<>]*>/m
str = '<p>test emoji <span title="Smile" class="animated-emoticon-20-smile"><img title="Smile" alt="🙂"></span> and more <span title="Emo" class="animated-emoticon-20-emo"><img title="Emo" alt="😑" target="_blank"></span><span title="Star eyes" class="animated-emoticon-20-stareyes"><img title="Star eyes" alt="🤩"></span></p>'
subst = '$1'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html