17 votes

Why emoji picker default on?

Posted by archevel
Tags: linux, ask.discussion, nixos, gtk, mozilla, firefox, emoji, rant

I'm running a nixos linux machine with Hyperland as my window manager and a few month back (likely after an update) I noticed that firefox started showing a emoji picker when I pressed ctrl+.. This was a bit annoying since the firefox extension for my password manager is activated by that key shortcut. I figured this was some update for firefox, but now that I dug into it to fix it it turns out that it is a gtk thing that apparently each app has to opt out of! I could disable it by flipping widget.gtk.native-emoji-dialog in about:config, but this seems like a really bad choice by gtk. Two gripes with this:

  1. Them adding a global keyboard shortcut for all gtk apps that is ON by default (for a kind of niche usecase).
  2. Overriding shortcuts on a desktop wide basis with no meaningful (afaict) way to disable it.

Anyone knows if this is intentional? Maybe it's already been reverted upstream and I just need to update... anyway end rant!

12 comments

  1. [7]
    fxgn
    Link
    Is it? I don't think emojis are a particularly "niche use case". Harder to find people who don't use them. And having a shortcut is definitely more convenient than having to search for "copy...

    for a kind of niche usecase

    Is it? I don't think emojis are a particularly "niche use case". Harder to find people who don't use them. And having a shortcut is definitely more convenient than having to search for "copy folded hands emoji" every time.

    9 votes
    1. Trobador
      Link Parent
      It's definitely something that's been high in demand for a little while. Though interestingly, I feel like there's not a lot of good emoji pickers available for desktops, especially Linux.

      It's definitely something that's been high in demand for a little while. Though interestingly, I feel like there's not a lot of good emoji pickers available for desktops, especially Linux.

      3 votes
    2. [5]
      archevel
      Link Parent
      They seem that way to me. I use the almost exclusively in chat applications. Not in any type of searches, not editing spreadsheets, not managing files on the filesystem, not when playing audio or...

      They seem that way to me. I use the almost exclusively in chat applications. Not in any type of searches, not editing spreadsheets, not managing files on the filesystem, not when playing audio or video, not when editing code, not when using blender or gimp/krita/inkscape... So to me chat apps and possibly social media seems kind of niche... YMMV!

      2 votes
      1. Greg
        Link Parent
        My guess is the lens the devs are looking at it through is that emojis are part of the keyboard (or I guess part of the input subsystem, if we’re being specific) rather than an application-level...

        My guess is the lens the devs are looking at it through is that emojis are part of the keyboard (or I guess part of the input subsystem, if we’re being specific) rather than an application-level control. It’s matching the familiar behaviour from phones where they’re literally part of the keyboard software and UI, but in a situation where there isn’t generally an onscreen keyboard in place to attach them to. FWIW this is how macOS has done it for a fair while now too, although the default binding there is on the fn modifier key that most people rarely use.

        Similar to what I said further up about changing defaults, I don’t necessarily know if I agree with the devs that this is the best approach on desktop - like you, I rarely use emojis other than in WhatsApp/Signal chats - but if you’re wondering about their reasoning for doing it this way I’d bet strongly on it being for system-level consistency of behaviour rather than for breadth of expected use per se.

        6 votes
      2. [3]
        TaylorSwiftsPickles
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        You don't 🙅‍♀️ use emojis 💅✨💖 in terminal scripts 💻, logging-specific code 📜, health monitoring-specific code 📈, emails 📧, calendar invites 📅, commit messages 🔀, code comments 📝, bug reports 🐞,...

        You don't 🙅‍♀️ use emojis 💅✨💖 in terminal scripts 💻, logging-specific code 📜, health monitoring-specific code 📈, emails 📧, calendar invites 📅, commit messages 🔀, code comments 📝, bug reports 🐞, Zabbix monitoring 🚨, Word documents 📄, graphics 🎨, notes 🤓, TODO lists ✅, or tildes comments🍆? Bestie 💅😭✨, do you live in 1996? 🦖💀 Smh my head 🤦‍♀️😂

        5 votes
  2. [5]
    3WolfMoon
    (edited )
    Link
    To put it simply, that's just how the GNOME devs roll. Support for the emoji picker was added in Firefox 150, likely when you began noticing it. Changing your extension's hotkey or the Firefox...

    To put it simply, that's just how the GNOME devs roll.

    Support for the emoji picker was added in Firefox 150, likely when you began noticing it. Changing your extension's hotkey or the Firefox preference are probably the easiest solutions. Alternatively, you could unbind or change the binding for GTK3 apps (like Firefox) in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css. I'm not sure if there is any choice from a user level for GTK4 apps unless one is provided by the app developers.

    Playing a bit of the devil's advocate: Ctrl+. is likely a niche bind to have pre-existing, while easy access to emoji is desirable for many users these days, even if it may not be for the average Tildes user.

    edit: a user with your same complaint shared a gtk.css rebind snippet, probably more immediately helpful than the gtk docs link.

    snippet 
    @binding-set EmojiSelectRemap {
  unbind "<Control>period";
  bind "<Control><Shift>e" { "insert-emoji" () };
}

entry, textview {
  -gtk-key-bindings: EmojiSelectRemap;
}
    8 votes
    1. [2]
      archevel
      Link Parent
      Thanks! I had tried a rebind with gtk.css, but my syntax was off. I think it's rare in e.g. Thunar that I actually would ever want to use an emoji... but maybe people really like it. I could see...

      Thanks! I had tried a rebind with gtk.css, but my syntax was off. I think it's rare in e.g. Thunar that I actually would ever want to use an emoji... but maybe people really like it. I could see the use in e.g. a text editor, but anyway the snippet worked nicely!

      Playing a bit of the devil's advocate: Ctrl+. is likely a niche bind to have pre-existing, while easy access to emoji is desirable for many users these days, even if it may not be for the average Tildes user.

      Fair enough, I didn't pick the shortcut the extension has it as its default. I think my main gripe is that it doesn't respect a specificity hierarchy. I.e. if it's on by default it should be canceled if there is a more narrow binding.

      Eg. gtk bidning < firefox shortcuts < extension short cuts < web page shortcuts (i.e. keypress listeners).

      But, again, that could just be my preference.

      3 votes
      1. Greg
        Link Parent
        My first thought was that I agree completely on hierarchy, but then I played with that idea a bit and I can very much imagine us here saying “what do you mean installing an extension is enough to...

        My first thought was that I agree completely on hierarchy, but then I played with that idea a bit and I can very much imagine us here saying “what do you mean installing an extension is enough to [annoyingly / nefariously] rebind ctrl + c, why would they let some random dev’s code silently mess with my system defaults?!” if it were reversed.

        I think the core of it really is that unexpected behaviour changes are always gonna be annoying until they’re around long enough to become expected behaviour, and then changing away from that behaviour becomes annoying and the circle of life goes on. But I’ve also only really been thinking about it for as long as it took me to type this, so maybe there would have been a way for the devs to reduce that annoyance…

        4 votes
    2. [2]
      Akir
      Link Parent
      Yeah, that is GNOME in a nutshell for sure. It’s the reason why I hated using it so much. Every packaged DE is going to be opinionated by necessity but GNOME always felt patriarchal in how it...

      Yeah, that is GNOME in a nutshell for sure. It’s the reason why I hated using it so much. Every packaged DE is going to be opinionated by necessity but GNOME always felt patriarchal in how it implemented all of them, especially given the massive changes between major versions.

      2 votes
      1. creesch
        Link Parent
        Yup, I have said it before , it is one thing to be opinionated about UI and UX, it is a whole other thing to look like you are actively fighting large parts of your user base. With GNOME it often...

        Yup, I have said it before , it is one thing to be opinionated about UI and UX, it is a whole other thing to look like you are actively fighting large parts of your user base. With GNOME it often looks like the latter in how far they go.

        Things have progressed since the years since the GNOME 3 release, I use it at work without too many annoyances. But at home I am very happy that KDE Plasma is also available. As a note, KDE Plasma improved leaps and bounds over the years in my experience. I whole heartily people who haven't tried it in a few years to give it a go.

        2 votes