An Emoji picker should be an OS-level feature. If the OS doesn’t provide the feature, then that is the OS’s decision to make, and the browser should respect it.

Why would I want text input in one app to have a feature that text input in other apps lacks?

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chuckadams 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It is an OS-level feature, or at least desktop environment level. Far as I know, it's always been Ctrl-. or Ctrl-; for any GTK app, but Firefox had apparently bound Ctrl-. to something else. So basically, this "added" feature is Firefox getting out of the way of the built-in picker that was already there.

On macOS, it still opens the multi-account container panel, and the emoji picker is still brought up by tapping Fn.

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Wowfunhappy 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Okay, in that case, I completely misunderstood the issue. If the change is that Firefox now allows the system-level picker to get through instead of blocking the keyboard shortcut, that’s a win.

I thought Firefox was adding its own Emoji-picker UI.

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embedding-shape 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> If the change is that Firefox now allows the system-level picker to get through instead of blocking the keyboard shortcut, that’s a win.

You're almost there :) Firefox now opens the system-level picker for that shortcut, regardless of what global keyboard shortcut you might have configured system-level. So system-level, I have nothing done on "CTRL + .", in Firefox, I have 1Password browser extension triggered by "CTRL + ." so when Firefox version 150 was launched, instead of seeing 1Password when I did the shortcut, it instead showed my system-level emoji picker (which I have no shortcut for), triggered by Firefox.

	▲	Wowfunhappy 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Okay, now I’m back to being annoyed. :) Why can’t Firefox respect system-level custom keyboard shortcuts? This has been a bug on Mac for like 15 years and they don’t seem to care about it at all, which IMO is ridiculous, it’s core system functionality.

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embedding-shape 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> but Firefox had apparently bound Ctrl-. to something else.

I think up until version 150 it was nothing, as 1Password had `ctrl + .` as the default shortcut for opening up their autocomplete thing, and feels like they wouldn't have chosen that shortcut years ago if Firefox was already using it for something, but maybe I misremember.

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hulitu 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> An Emoji picker should be an OS-level feature.

Why ? Every program shall be free to implement its own Emoji picker. For example systemd or bash or even iptables.

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LatencyKills 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Allow me to rephrase: If the OS doesn’t provide X, the end user should have no alternative for X.

I use both macOS and Pop!OS. The latter doesn't include an emoji picker by default, so I'm precluded from using a 3rd-party picker?

There is no issue as long as a 3rd-party app doesn't override built-in functionality. If you don't want it, it is easy to disable.

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Wowfunhappy 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Especially on a Linux distro, you could install a 3rd-party package that adds an emoji picker system-wide, as opposed to in one app.

If every app brings its own emoji picker, then you end up with a different interface everywhere.

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bob001 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> then you end up with a different interface everywhere.

This whole post is about someone being upset that Firefox finally did support the system level interface and shortcut. And you're upset about that while asking for consistent interfaces. Some people can just never be happy I guess.

	▲	embedding-shape 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Just to put the record straight, I'm (author of the post) not upset, mad or sad about anything, it is what it is, I'm sure some like it, others don't. I'm glad I have the option to turn it off, like most stuff I don't like in Firefox, it tends to be easy to get rid of it. I shared it as a blog post as I've already had two people asking me privately if I know how to get rid of it, as I'm the reason they use 1Password in the first place, not because "I got so upset I couldn't contain it" or something like that. Surely there are more wondering it then. I also don't think parent seem upset either, but I won't attempt to speak for them. But arguing for/against a position doesn't mean they aren't happy or that they are upset, conflicting views and perspectives is normal, even within the same person sometimes :)

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LatencyKills 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I understand that, but as someone who was an engineer at both Microsoft and Apple, I see absolutely no problem with 3rd-parties adding useful features.

As I said, as long as 3rd parties aren't overriding the built-in functionality by default (e.g., using the same keyboard shortcuts), there's no problem. 99% of FF users will probably never even know it has its own picker.

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fg137 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean, Firefox is 3rd party, so.

	▲	6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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shevy-java 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Hmmm. Let me preface here that I think Mozilla invests its energy in a strange way.

On the other hand, I am not sure I can agree with "OS-level feature".

An emoji is essentially something simple, right? I am thinking of an "Unicode symbol" here. So to me, I would like to use any emoji or unicode as-is, anywhere, when it comes to user input - copy/paste, perhaps even converting it to a real image. You mentioned that "browsers should respect if emojis are forbidden by the OS", in essence, and I am not sure I agree with that. If an OS does not allow me to use an emoji, then I would not want to use that OS (well, I use Linux, so that does not matter anyway; and I avoid GNOME since it is too opinionated - I want to decide what I can do, I don't want remote developers decide what to do; this is also why I stopped using KDE, after the donation-daemon was added by Nate not so long ago).

> Why would I want text input in one app to have a feature that text input in other apps lacks?

That is a valid question but would I want to give up on emojis because "the OS does not support it"? I'd much rather use emojis, even IF an OS does not support it. I really don't want to be limited like that by an OS.

Perhaps this simply refers to different assumptions. I think we can agree that Mozilla invests their resources in a strange way though.

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PurpleRamen 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> An Emoji picker should be an OS-level feature.

This is an "OS"-feature, where OS means the GUI-Framework that Firefox is using to integrate with the DE.

> If the OS doesn’t provide the feature, then that is the OS’s decision to make, and the browser should respect it.

That's a very strange claim. Nearly everything in any app is something the OS is not providing; that's why apps exist in the first place, to enhance the environment.

> Why would I want text input in one app to have a feature that text input in other apps lacks?

Why should they cripple themselves willingly; just to align with others? Especially as this is a web browser, which has become the main way of interaction with a big part of the world.