Signal-desktop: Option to disable Emoji Typeahead - can't use emoticon :DD

[Elijas]

Bug Description

pressing <Enter> after typing :DD autocompletes it to :wedding: emoji instead of sending a message

Linked issues

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/197

Steps to Reproduce

Signal Desktop v1.26.2
Windows 10 64-bit

Action

Type :DD to text input in a chat and press <Enter>

Actual Result:

• Text field contains an emoji 💒
• No sent message

Expected Result:

• Text field is empty
• A message is sent with contents :DD

Proposals

• Maybe have a one-off exception for laugh emoticons consisting of a colon and D's, e.g. :D, :DD, :ddd, etc.
• Maybe use <Tab> for autocompletion instead of <Space> <Enter> (or at least, give the option in settings to do so).
• (Less preferred) Maybe make an option to disable emoji typeahead autocompletion all-together?

[kenpowers-signal]

• Maybe use <Tab> for autocompletion instead of <Space> (or at least, give the option in settings to do so).

We don't use <Space> for autocompletion, it actually closes the autocomplete menu and allows you to send. You can also use <Esc> to close the autocomplete menu.

[adamcameron]

I hate to comment on a closed issue, but there's def a UX issue to deal with here, IMO. Typing ":-p" and having it being converted to a bathing suit emoji (!) is... getting old very quickly (I only started using Signal this week).

Would be good, btw, if when closing an issue a clear explanation of why the decision was made to not address the issue was provided.

Cheers for the cool software though. Nice work.

[bentolor]

Sorry for also resurrecting this dead fish, …ehhhm … issue, too, @scottnonnenberg @adamcameron @Elijas

But the amount of female bathing suites, I'm sending to my colleagues & family, has become unbearable!

Just typing quickly ;-p leads constantly to this bathing suite icon. I'm afraid that some recipients might misinterpret this even as sexual harassement…

[CatusNosferatus]

I am also one of the affected people here... It's mighty annoying when a chat app breaks your muscle memory like this for no reason. And no, "_just use Esc or Space to close the pop-up_" is not a viable solution! Why should I re-train my muscle memory and slow down my flow just because some developers of some single chat client decided they want to "be different".
And this is not the first time — Signal developers often simply refuse to fix glaring usability issues that don't occur anywhere else in the world just because they don't want to, don't have the time, or think it's a "boring" issue to fix. I get that this is free software and devs are "working for free", but still the attitude is NOT customer friendly... Especially when the issues in question have very obvious and relatively simple solutions that devs refuse to see.

[adamcameron]

I've just worked out what's going on here, and it's def a bug. If I type ":-p", then Signal is deciding that's a match for ":one-piece_swimsuit:", based on the "-p" being a substring of that. However I didn't type "-p", I typed ":-p", and that is NOT a substring of ":one-piece_swimsuit:", so it simply oughtn't auto-complete that, it should instead go "ah well I have no match for this so I guess they actually meant to type ':-p' and I'll just shut-up now". Or some computer-program version of same.

I think here the reported "feature" is actually a request for a work around for the bug, so the issue should be reopened, retasked (and re-described) as a bug, and... well... fixed.

[CatusNosferatus]

Exactly. It's very clearly a bug, like many other bugs reported to Signal dev. team. And like with many other bugs, they just pretend it's a feature.
I believe we should create a new bug report for this.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

I was just testing this, and you can type :-p then a space, and continue typing whatever else, no bathing suit emoji. Yes, the menu flashes up for a while, but is that not a reasonable workaround?

[CatusNosferatus]

I was just testing this, and you can type :-p then a space, and continue typing whatever else, no bathing suit emoji. Yes, the menu flashes up for a while, but is that not a reasonable workaround?

No, because emoji is often the last symbol in the message, so your reflexes hit Enter automatically.
And what's more important: why should we, users, revert to workarounds to avoid frankly ridiculous bugs on developer's part? Especially when developers are being arrogant and refuse to admit this as a bug.

[CatusNosferatus]

Does anyone know any alternative desktop client to use with Signal protocol? I am getting fed up with such issues, but don't want to ask all my friends to migrate to yet another new chat app just after half a year later when they all moved to Signal because of me.