How To Remove Emoji Code from Your WordPress Site

Emojis have become an increasingly popular way of expressing emotions and conveying messages in digital communication. They have become an integral part of online content, including websites and blogs. However, sometimes emojis can cause compatibility issues or conflicts with certain plugins or themes in your WordPress site. In such cases, it may be necessary to remove emoji code from your WordPress site.

In this blog, we will guide you through the process of removing emoji code from your WordPress site.

1. What are emojis and why are they used?

Emojis are graphical representations of emotions, objects, and symbols that are used to convey a message or sentiment in digital communication. They were first introduced in Japan in the late 1990s and have since become popular worldwide. Today, emojis are available on most digital devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Emojis are used for a variety of reasons, including:

1. Adding personality to text: Emojis can be used to add emotion, humor, or personality to text. For example, a smiling face emoji can indicate that a message is meant to be friendly or humorous.
2. Replacing text: Sometimes, a single emoji can replace an entire sentence of text. For example, a thumbs-up emoji can indicate agreement or approval without the need for a written response.
3. Enhancing social media engagement: Emojis can be used to enhance engagement on social media platforms. Posts with emojis tend to receive more engagement than posts without them.

2. How to check if your site is using emojis

Before you can remove emoji code from your WordPress site, you need to determine whether your site is using emojis. There are a few ways to do this:

1. View your site’s source code: You can view your site’s source code by right-clicking anywhere on your site and selecting “View Page Source” or “Inspect Element”. Once you have access to your site’s source code, you can search for the term “emoji”. If your site is using emojis, you should see the term “emoji” in the code.
2. Use a plugin: There are several WordPress plugins available that can help you determine whether your site is using emojis. One such plugin is the “Disable Emojis” plugin. This plugin will disable emojis on your site and remove the emoji code from your site’s source code.

3. Why should you remove emoji code from your WordPress site?

While emojis can be a fun and useful way to add personality to your site, there are several reasons why you may want to remove emoji code from your WordPress site:

1. Compatibility issues: Emojis can cause compatibility issues with certain plugins or themes. If you are experiencing compatibility issues with your site, removing emoji code may help resolve the issue.
2. Page load speed: Emojis can slow down your site’s page load speed. This is because emojis are loaded from an external source and can take time to load. Removing emoji code can help improve your site’s page load speed.
3. Security: Emojis can be used to execute malicious code on your site. While this is rare, it is a possibility. Removing emoji code can help improve your site’s security.

4. How to remove emoji code from your WordPress site

Now that you know what emojis are, why you should remove them from your WordPress site, and how to check if your site is using emojis, let’s look at how to remove emoji code from your site.

4.1 Disable emojis with code

The easiest way to remove emoji code from your site is to add a few lines of code to your site’s functions.php file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress site.
2. Navigate to Appearance > Theme Editor.
3. Click on the functions.php file on the right-hand side.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the file and add the following code:

remove_action('wp_head', 'print_emoji_detection_script', 7);
remove_action('wp_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles');

5. Click on the “Update File” button to save the changes.

This code will remove the emoji detection script and emoji styles from your site’s header, effectively disabling emojis on your site.

4.2 Use a plugin

If you don’t feel comfortable editing your site’s code, you can use a plugin to remove emoji code from your site. One such plugin is the “Disable Emojis” plugin. Here’s how to use it:

1. Log in to your WordPress site.
2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New.
3. Search for “Disable Emojis” and install the plugin.
4. Activate the plugin.
5. That’s it! The plugin will automatically remove emoji code from your site.
6. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

If you want to keep emojis on your site but reduce their impact on your site’s page load speed, you can use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve the emojis. A CDN is a network of servers that are located around the world and work together to deliver content to your site’s visitors from the server that is closest to them.

To use a CDN to serve emojis, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for a CDN service, such as Cloudflare or MaxCDN.
2. Set up the CDN on your site by following the instructions provided by your CDN service.
3. Configure the CDN to serve emojis from a different domain than your main site. This will prevent the emojis from slowing down your site’s page load speed.
4. Update your site’s code to use the new emoji domain. To do this, you can add the following code to your site’s functions.php file:

add_filter('emoji_url', 'change_emoji_url');
function change_emoji_url($url){
    return 'https://cdn.yourdomain.com' . substr($url, strpos($url, '/wp-content'));
}

5. Replace “cdn.yourdomain.com” with your CDN’s domain name.
6. Click on the “Update File” button to save the changes.

5. Conclusion

Emojis can add personality and fun to your WordPress site, but they can also cause compatibility issues, slow down your site’s page load speed, and pose security risks. If you are experiencing any of these issues, it may be necessary to remove emoji code from your site. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can easily disable emojis on your site or use a CDN to serve them more efficiently.