Easy Workaround for Emoji Search

[aarron-lee]

Just wanted to document an easy option for Emoji search that I think works pretty well.

Instructions

1. Download Emoji Dictionary of your choice: https://codeberg.org/Helium314/aosp-dictionaries/src/branch/main/emoji_cldr_signal_dictionaries
2. Add the emoji dictionary to the No Language Keyboard option

3. Enable the No Language keyboard

4. Enable the Language Switch key

5. Use the Language Switch key to switch to the emoji keyboard, you can easily search for emojis

6. Go back to your regular language keyboard by pressing the Language Switch key

Further Ideas

Why not just include an Emoji Keyboard (en) option by default (same for other languages), instead of this No Language workaround?

Also, for emoji keyboards, increase the number of auto-suggestions since emojis are smaller than entire words

[adamhospodka]

Just set this up. Gets the job done, thanks!

[eranl]

Nice workaround! Would you use an actual emoji search feature (either ':'-based or full-fledged UI, as discussed in #259) if and when it was added, or are you happy with this?

[aarron-lee]

I'm pretty sure that this "workaround" is actually no good for users that use multiple languages.

It only works since I'm using English + No Language, but adding a 3rd language (or more) makes it much more awkward since you'd need to constantly cycle through languages via the language switch button to access the emoji search.

which is why I think a proper emoji search feature would still be preferable in the long term.

There's other awkward aspects to this workaround, such as only 3 auto-suggestions popping up, even if there might be much more emoji matches

I find this solution "good enough" for now, but not really ideal overall.

[aarron-lee]

If someone wants to take inspiration from this workaround, maybe they can implement emoji search via something like:

• user clicks dedicated emoji search key
• keyboard temporarily swaps to emoji language keyboard of choice (e.g. switch from EN to EN-Emoji)
  • has 5+ listed auto-suggestions of emoji instead of 3, since emojis are smaller you can fit more.
• tapping emoji search key again closes it, goes back to previous keyboard (e.g. switch back from EN-Emoji to EN)
• the emoji keyboard does NOT show up as an additional language keyboard in the language switcher, so it won't interfere with the language switch key

But a proper emoji search still probably makes the most sense, rather than a workaround like this.