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To open an emoji panel, in Windows, I can press the Win key and period.

On Mac, I can open an emoji panel via Control + Command + Spacebar.

What is a convenient way to open a similar emoji panel in Ubuntu? I don't want the Characters app, which is much less convenient than a single-click emoji picker.

karel
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Ryan
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4 Answers4

9

If you prefer flatpak I've been using Smile for a few months years and it works great. Emote is also available, but I think Smile has more features.

smile

And to set up a shortcut (instructions from Ubuntu):

  1. Open "Settings"
  2. Navigate to the "Keyboard" settings in the sidebar
  3. Scroll down to "Keyboard Shortcuts", and press "View and Customize Shortcuts"
  4. Select "Custom Shortcuts" and then click the + to add a shortcut
  5. Set a name (e.g. "emote" or "emoji picker")
  6. Set "Command" to flatpak run it.mijorus.smile
  7. Set your shortcut as something like ctrl + .
GammaGames
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8

I am using ubuntu 23.04 There is an inbuilt application called "Characters" you can use that to get emojis. No need to install a third party emoji picker.

You can simply press the super key (formerly Windows) and type an emoji name and select the emoji from list.

select emoji by name super key

But some emojis are hard to find by name, so create a shortcut to characters app and look and find suitable one from it.

Steps

  1. Create a keyboard shortcut for the app - Ctrl + Shift + ..

emoji picker shortcut

  1. Open app use Ctrl + F to find emoji. select and copy.

pick emoji

Use native GTK app shortcut Ctrl + . if available

Akshay Chandran
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7

In apps developed using GTK, you can press Ctrl + . to trigger an emoji picker, no extra software required.

jobukkit
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2

In 2024, this Cross-Platform Emoji Picker is available for free.

screenshot of Cross-Platform Emoji Picker

It works on Ubuntu and also on Windows and Mac, using the same keyboard shortcut.

P.S. Full disclosure: I created this app using Electron. This is not meant to be a spammy, self-promoting post. But I was the original question-asker 5 months ago, and I finally built this tool for myself because the others weren't good. Feel free to use it if you want.

Ryan
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