The Simplest Way to Disable Emojis in WordPress

Are you looking for a way to disable emojis in WordPress?  Disabling the WordPress emoji file can eliminate one HTTP request on your site without affecting the experience of most of your visitors.

Luckily, it’s really easy to disable emojis in WordPress using a free plugin. However, for more technical users, you may prefer to disable emoji using a code. You need to edit your child theme for this functions.php file (or apply the code on the Code Snippet plugin).

Why would you want to disable emojis in WordPress?

The main reason to disable WordPress emojis is to improve performance on your site.

By default, WordPress already supports most emoji across modern browsers without the need for any additional files. However, to ensure support for older browsers, WordPress added additional emoji support in WordPress 4.2. In recent versions, it adds emoji support single wp-emoji-release.min.js File on every page on your site.

Loading this file adds an additional HTTP request to your site. But at the same time, emoji don’t need to work for most of your users. Thus, disabling this file can help you reduce your HTTP requests and get Very small performance boost.

It is important to be clear that when we talk about “disabling emojis in WordPress”, we are really focusing on disabling the extra emoji file bloat that WordPress loads. Even if you disable this file, most users will still be able to add and see emoji.

For example, they can use their device’s emoji keyboard or copy and paste from a site like Emojipedia.

The simplest way to disable emojis in WordPress

Now that you know why you would want to disable emojis in WordPress, let’s look at the simplest way to do so.

1. Disable Emojis in WordPress Using a Plugin
2. Disable emojis in WordPress using code

1. Disable Emojis in WordPress Using a Plugin

The easiest way to disable emojis in WordPress is by using a plugin. Disable Emojis (GDPR Compliant), While the plugin doesn’t remove emojis, it does disable extra checks and scripts that cause bloat on your site.

That way, you can continue to allow visitors to use (and see) emoji as long as their browser supports this functionality.

Plus, you can make sure your site remains GDPR compliant, and maintain a seamless user experience (UX).

One of the best parts about Disable Emoji is that it is completely free and extremely easy to set up. all you have to do is raise your head plug-in, and add new Within your WordPress Dashboard. Then, search for “disabled emoji:”

click here Install now > Activate, The plugin starts working automatically. In fact, there are no configuration settings that need to be applied, so at this stage, you are all set.

2. Disable Emojis in WordPress Using Code

Although a plugin is the simplest way to disable emojis in WordPress, you can also disable emojis using code. However, you will need to edit your child theme functions.php File which requires some technical knowledge. Also, it can be risky as one wrong line of code can break your site.

so you may like to make changes by implementing code like plugin code snippets,

It’s ideal for beginners as it enables you to edit important aspects of your site without the risk of breaking it. Plus, it’s completely free, so you can go straight ahead and install the plugin from your dashboard.

Once you have activated the plugin, just go ahead with snippets from your admin area. Then click on add new, You’ll see an empty snippet box like this:

Give your snippet a title first – something like “Disable emoji” makes sense. Next, paste the following code snippet In the main snippet box:

/**
 * Disable the emoji's
 */
function disable_emojis() {
 remove_action( 'wp_head', 'print_emoji_detection_script', 7 );
 remove_action( 'admin_print_scripts', 'print_emoji_detection_script' );
 remove_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles' );
 remove_action( 'admin_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles' ); 
 remove_filter( 'the_content_feed', 'wp_staticize_emoji' );
 remove_filter( 'comment_text_rss', 'wp_staticize_emoji' ); 
 remove_filter( 'wp_mail', 'wp_staticize_emoji_for_email' );
 add_filter( 'tiny_mce_plugins', 'disable_emojis_tinymce' );
 add_filter( 'wp_resource_hints', 'disable_emojis_remove_dns_prefetch', 10, 2 );
}
add_action( 'init', 'disable_emojis' );
 
/**
 * Filter function used to remove the tinymce emoji plugin.
 * 
 * @param array $plugins 
 * @return array Difference betwen the two arrays
 */
function disable_emojis_tinymce( $plugins ) {
 if ( is_array( $plugins ) ) {
 return array_diff( $plugins, array( 'wpemoji' ) );
 } else {
 return array();
 }
}
 
/**
 * Remove emoji CDN hostname from DNS prefetching hints.
 *
 * @param array $urls URLs to print for resource hints.
 * @param string $relation_type The relation type the URLs are printed for.
 * @return array Difference betwen the two arrays.
 */
function disable_emojis_remove_dns_prefetch( $urls, $relation_type ) {
 if ( 'dns-prefetch' == $relation_type ) {
 /** This filter is documented in wp-includes/formatting.php */
 $emoji_svg_url = apply_filters( 'emoji_svg_url', ' );
 
$urls = array_diff( $urls, array( $emoji_svg_url ) );
 }
 
return $urls;
}

Finally, select the option to run snippet everywhere (above image) and click Save Changes And Active,

Your snippet is now running and emoji have been disabled from your WordPress site.

Disable Emojis in WordPress to Improve Performance

In short, here are two simple ways to disable emojis in WordPress:

1.  Disable emojis in WordPress Using a directly named pluginDisable emojis (GDPR compliant).
2.  Disable emoji in WordPress using the code. you can do it directly by editing the functions.php files or Using a Code Snippet Plugin Like code snippets.