Request KDE consider merging the Emoji Picker and KCharSelect into one unified Character & Emoji Viewer so users have a single, consistent, searchable tool for all symbols, emoji, and Unicode characters.
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hi, welcome.
this has been brought up before along with them being able to paste directly rather than just going into the clipboard, but these two utilities are quite far apart in UX and i would not expect a merge anytime soon, unless you have the energy/skills to work on it.
what i’ve done in the meantime is focused on my custom keyboard layout and .XCompose files where i can keep the characters i want easy access to closer to the finger tips.
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Even better, make it a tray widget so I don’t have to constantly manage a separate floating window. 
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I would personally advocate for keeping these two tools separate to ensure better maintainability and avoid bloating the interface.
Instead of a full merge, we could focus on better integration:
Add a direct link/button in the Emoji Picker to open KCharSelect for advanced symbols.
Add a shortcut in KCharSelect to jump back to the Emoji Picker.
This approach achieves “discoverability” for the user without the technical complexity of merging two very different codebases.
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This is something present in Windows Emoji picker and the interface doesn’t really look that cluttered.
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I’ve changed my mind on this over time and think it’s probably a good idea.
Of course, wanting it and doing it are very different things!
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That’s a very elegant solution and, I imagine, wouldn’t be too hard to implement. Would that require an added dependency? I’m not sure how that works. I’m on bazzite and had to install KCharSelect from flathub.
Yes! I also support this idea. I’ve always wondered why it wasn’t like this already, coming from a Windows backgroud a year ago. But I also understand that this takes development time and effort from unpaid contributors, so I’m aware of why it didn’t happen yet.
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While I can’t contribute code, I do throw spare funds at the foundation when I’m able and hope this idea gains traction as resources allow.
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Someone just went and coded a replacement. Perhaps KDE could approach them to incorporate it into the KDE brand?
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it does not appear to do special character insertion tho so that sill leaves one to rely on kcharselect for that service.
it’s a nice option for the emoji picker tho.
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