Add a Behavior preference to disable the emoji autocomplete picker
Description
When typing colons at the end of French sentences like:
Et voilà :The emoji picker pops up. Users who don't use emoji find this disruptive, and it interferes with natural typing in languages where colons are preceded by a non-breakable space.
Proposal
Add a user preference toggle under User Settings > Preferences > Behavior to disable the emoji autocomplete picker.
- Default: Enabled (preserving current behavior for existing users)
- When disabled: The emoji autocomplete picker will not appear when typing
:in text fields - Users can still insert emoji via other means (e.g., the emoji button in the toolbar, copy-paste)
Additional Considerations
- documentation will need to be updated to reflect the new preference option
- A release post item will be needed to announce this change
- We will need to track this behaviour (e.g., via usage tracking / internal analytics) to understand adoption and validate the decision
Edited by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖