How to Disable the WordPress Emoji Script

Disabling WordPress Emoji Script

Custom Code Solution

Add this code to your theme's functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:

This code removes the WordPress emoji script and related resources to improve page load time:

function disable_wp_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');

    // Remove the TinyMCE emojis
    add_filter('tiny_mce_plugins', 'disable_emojis_tinymce');
    
    // Remove emoji CDN hostname from DNS prefetching hints
    add_filter('wp_resource_hints', 'disable_emojis_remove_dns_prefetch', 10, 2);
}
add_action('init', 'disable_wp_emojis');

function disable_emojis_tinymce($plugins) {
    if (is_array($plugins)) {
        return array_diff($plugins, array('wpemoji'));
    }
    return array();
}

function disable_emojis_remove_dns_prefetch($urls, $relation_type) {
    if ('dns-prefetch' === $relation_type) {
        $emoji_svg_url = apply_filters('emoji_svg_url', 'https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/');
        $urls = array_diff($urls, array($emoji_svg_url));
    }
    return $urls;
}

Plugin Solutions

If you prefer using a plugin, here are reliable options:

1. Disable Emojis - Simple, lightweight plugin that only removes emoji functionality
2. Asset CleanUp - More advanced plugin that can disable emojis along with other WordPress scripts and styles

Benefits

• Reduces HTTP requests
• Decreases page load time
• Removes unnecessary JavaScript
• Cleans up your site's HTML output

Important Notes

• This won't affect emoji display in modern browsers as they handle emoji rendering natively
• The code removes both front-end and admin emoji scripts
• Compatible with all major WordPress versions
• Works with both classic editor and Gutenberg

If you only want to disable emojis on the frontend while keeping them in the admin area, modify the code to remove the admin-related hooks.