Emote is a popup emoji picker for Linux, built with GTK4 and libadwaita.
Important
Call for testers!
Emote 5.0 is a major update with several big improvements. It needs your help to test it and verify it's ready for release. Please try the beta and share feedback.
- Start typing to search, or scroll through the emoji categories.
- Quickly find recently used emojis.
- Navigate with your keyboard or mouse, and select one emoji or several.
- Copy emojis to the clipboard and optionally paste them into your previous app.
- Choose your preferred skin tone.
- Emote follows your desktop's theme.
flatpak install flathub com.tomjwatson.Emote
sudo snap install emoteThe community maintains an unofficial AUR package. This is not maintained by me, so install at your own risk.
Launch Emote from your app menu. The default shortcut to open the picker is Ctrl+Alt+E. See Desktop integration for shortcut setup and login startup.
Start typing to search, or browse the categories. Click an emoji or press Enter to copy it and close the picker. If automatic paste is enabled, Emote pastes it into the app you were using. Otherwise, paste it yourself.
To select several emojis, right-click each one or press Shift+Enter. Click the final emoji or press Enter to finish the selection and close the picker.
Open Preferences to change the emoji size, skin tone, or font. Emote includes Noto Color Emoji with Unicode 18 support; choose System to use your desktop's emoji font.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open or close the picker | Ctrl+Alt+E (default global shortcut) |
| Select emoji | Enter |
| Add emoji to selection | Shift+Enter |
| Focus search | Ctrl+F |
| Next category | Ctrl+Tab |
| Previous category | Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
On X11, Emote handles the global shortcut itself. Change it from Keyboard Shortcuts in Emote.
On Wayland, your desktop manages the shortcut through its Global Shortcuts portal. Emote offers to set this up the first time you open the picker. You can skip setup and keep an existing manual shortcut, or set it up later from Keyboard Shortcuts. To change or enable a registered shortcut, use your desktop's shortcut settings.
If your desktop does not support the portal, configure a shortcut manually using the Wayland shortcut guide.
Automatic paste is optional on both X11 and Wayland. Turn it on or off in Preferences. It is on by default on X11.
On Wayland, it also needs your desktop's permission to control the keyboard. Emote offers to enable it during setup. On GNOME, allow “Remote Interaction” when prompted. Emote requests keyboard control, not screen access.
On KDE, Emote keeps keyboard control active while automatic paste is enabled, avoiding a notification for every paste. On other desktops, it releases control after each paste. You can stop keyboard control using your desktop's indicator or turn automatic paste off in Preferences.
If automatic paste is disabled or unavailable, your selection is still copied to the clipboard.
Emote starts automatically when you log in. Launch it once from your app menu after installing.
See the development guide for running from source, debugging, and testing desktop integration. The release guide covers building and publishing Flatpak and Snap packages.
Emote is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 or later.
Emoji data comes from OpenMoji. Noto Color Emoji is bundled under the SIL Open Font License. Category icons include artwork from Lucide; see the bundled icon license.