Ryan Hellyer

This plugin disables the WordPress emoji functionality, removing unnecessary code bloat that adds support for emojis in older browsers.
<h4>What it does</h4>
<ul>
<li>Removes the emoji detection script from <code>wp_head</code> and the admin</li>
<li>Removes emoji styles from <code>wp_print_styles</code> and admin</li>
<li>Removes emoji DNS prefetching, preventing connections to <code>s.w.org</code></li>
<li>Removes the <code>wpemoji</code> TinyMCE plugin</li>
<li>Strips emoji CDN hostname from DNS prefetch hints</li>
</ul>
<h4>Performance & Privacy</h4>
Emojis will still display in modern browsers that have built-in support. This plugin simply removes the extra HTTP requests and JavaScript overhead for browsers that don’t need it. Additionally, it prevents DNS prefetching to WordPress.org’s emoji CDN, improving privacy.
Note: Emoticons like <code>:)</code> will continue to work as expected.
<h4>Requirements</h4>
<ul>
<li>PHP 7.4+</li>
<li>WordPress 5.0+</li>
</ul>
<h4>GDPR compliancy</h4>
This plugin does not send any data to external servers. It disables DNS prefetching of emojis within WordPress, which should ensure improved privacy. To determine if your site is GDPR compliant, please seek legal advice. I have done my best to ensure the plugin is 100% GDPR compliant, but I am not a lawyer so cannot guarantee anything.
<h4>Architecture</h4>
The plugin uses:
<h4>Quality</h4>
All code uses <code>declare(strict_types=1)</code> and follows PSR-12. The plugin runs the following tooling:
<ul>
<li>PHP_CodeSniffer (run via <code>composer phpcs</code>) — sniffs for PSR-12 violations</li>
<li>PHP-CS-Fixer (run via <code>composer cs</code>) — dry-run style check</li>
<li>PHPStan at level 6 (run via <code>composer phpstan</code>) — static analysis</li>
</ul>

Disable Emojis (GDPR friendly)

should add this one as well !

remove_action( 'embed_head', 'print_emoji_detection_script' );

another remove filter to add to the too long list !

No configuration needed. No ads. Does the job.

Clean

Disable Emojis by Ryan Hellyer is a gem! With 60k+ active installs and nearly perfect 5-star rating, it's clearly doing something right. This lightweight plugin strips out WordPress's bloated emoji code while keeping your content looking great in modern browsers. The GDPR-friendly bonus is huge - it stops DNS prefetching to external emoji servers, protecting visitor privacy. Ryan's been maintaining this for years and it shows. Your site loads faster, stays compliant, and emojis still work naturally. Win-win-win!

Clean Up Your Site & Improve GDPR Compliance


It's so rare to find a plugin these days that has no bloat, no upsells, no ANYTHING beyond exactly what's needed to get the job done. Thank you!


Small but mighty

Disable the WordPress emoji functionality to improve performance and privacy.

vuukle

Trusted by 600+ premium publishers in 75+ markets – including The Times of India, Khaleej Times, Issuu, IBTimes, Scripps, ABS-CBN, and Paramount.
Top-tier credentials: Google MCM Partner, IAB Europe Vendor, Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP), Prebid.org member, IAB TCF v2.2 registered, GDPR + CCPA compliant. Our Quizzly contextual AI engine is patented.
Why publishers switch to Vuukle: Speed-first (every widget loads in under 100ms, total payload under 50KB, single async JavaScript). AI-native (dual-layer comment moderation via OpenAI + Google Perspective, patented contextual AI quizzes, ML-driven yield optimization, semantic article re-circulation – four production AI engines). Brand-safe by design with 30+ DSP/SSP partners. One unified dashboard for engagement, moderation, ad performance, and audience analytics.
Find out if your site qualifies for ad revenue share at <a href="https://vuukle.com" rel="nofollow ugc">vuukle.com</a> – typical lift: +30-80% on top of existing programmatic.
Unlock the potential of audience engagement with Vuukle! Our 
revolutionary publisher workspace solution is designed to maximize audience engagement, boost site speed, and increase revenue. Our comprehensive portfolio of user engagement products and features make it easier than ever for publishers to engage and retain their users. With our award-winning commenting plugin as the cornerstone, we offer an array of other user engagement products and features to help publishers reach their goals while freeing up more time to focus on creating high-quality content!
VUUKLE PRODUCTS
<ul>
<li>
Commenting Widget
</li>
<li>
Reaction Widget
</li>
<li>
Social Share Bar
</li>
<li>
Audio – Listen to the Article Tool
</li>
<li>
Browser Web-Push Notifications
</li>
<li>
Quiz Widget
</li>
<li>
Full Service Ad Monetization
</li>
<li>
Programmatic Ad Monetization
</li>
<li>
Real-time Analytics
</li>
</ul>
THE VUUKLE DIFFERENCE
<ul>
<li>
Amplified User Engagement & Audience Reach
<ul>
<li>Our advanced engagement tools enable users to have a more engaging experience with your website. This can result in increased user time spent on the site, higher page views per session, more engagement, lower bounce rates, and ultimately more revenue for publishers who monetize through ads.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Speed
<ul>
<li>We are the most lightweight platform in the industry, with our products loading in under 100ms and taking up less than 50kb of space. No matter how many Vuukle products you use, your page load speed will remain unaffected due to the single, streamlined JavaScript powering them all.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Quick & Easy Installation
<ul>
<li>Our products are designed for easy installation in a matter of minutes, requiring only a few simple steps. Furthermore, we can import your existing data from virtually any platform, as well as provide an export of your data for your convenience.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Advanced Infrastructure
<ul>
<li>Vuukle’s engagement tools are designed to provide seamless experiences on both mobile and desktop, including Google AMP and Native Apps. Our USP is that we process more than 20 billion HTTPs requests each month, and our systems are capable of scaling automatically to any level of traffic.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Unified Workspace
<ul>
<li>The Vuukle dashboard is the perfect hub for managing all your engagement tools, features and performance data in one convenient workspace. No matter how many products you decide to use from our suite of solutions, you can keep everything organized and in one place.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Analytics & Insights
<ul>
<li>Unify all of your engagement and ad data in one workspace to keep track of page visitors, user time spent reading each article, trending articles, sources of traffic, and more! Get an in-depth look at user engagement and ad performance by monitoring live information and generating historical reports.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Flexibility & Customization
<ul>
<li>We are a fully responsive platform with robust integration capabilities. Our engagement tools can be tailored to meet your site’s structure, needs, and design aesthetics, ensuring a customized experience for your visitors. With our solutions you can rest assured that your site is optimized to its full potential.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Monetization
<ul>
<li>Vuukle is a Google MCM partner and has partnerships with over 30 different SSPs and DSPs, enabling us to maximize revenue for our partners while saving them time and effort. Our programmatic advertising platform streamlines the ad monetization process, helping qualifying websites to monetize their content and earn more revenue. We have a dedicated team of experts that specialize in ad yield optimization, leveraging such technologies as header bidding, Google open bidding, Amazon TAM, oRTB, PG/PMP, and direct campaigns. Our commitment is to provide our partners with the best technology, support, and performance.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
24-7 Customer Support
<ul>
<li>Our dedicated support team is available 24/7 to provide our customers with the highest quality of service. Whether you need help finding the right product, have a question about our widgets, or require assistance troubleshooting a technical issue, we are here to help. We strive to ensure that all our customers have the support they need to get the most out of their experience.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Data Privacy
<ul>
<li>We are compliant with major privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
* COMMENTING WIDGET
For over 10 years, Vuukle’s commenting plugin has been the go-to for publishers looking to significantly increase user engagement, ad revenue, and CPM without slowing down page load speed. Our modern-styled and customizable widget can be placed anywhere on your page to ignite conversation, and from the Vuukle dashboard, publishers can view all performance insights and discover the articles that create the most discussion. Additionally, the widget’s self-recommendation engine helps improve content recirculation on your website with great CTR’s. To ensure a brand-safe environment, Vuukle’s commenting system is integrated with AI-powered comment moderation, with most languages built right in and “toxic” comments prefiltered before a spam comment can even be posted – this saves you time from having to moderate and provides an improved user experience for your website visitors. With Vuukle, you can be sure to have more meaningful conversations in a secure environment.
HIGHLIGHTS:
<ul>
<li>
Increase Engagement & Audience Reach: Allow users to interact with content in a more meaningful way, increasing user time spent and page views per session, reducing bounce rates, and more. Users can share content from our commenting section to their social media, giving publishers an increase in user reach and visibility. This translates into better revenue for publishers looking to monetize through ads.
</li>
<li>
Speed: Vuukle is the fastest and most lightweight commenting plugin on the market today. Adding this widget to your page will not slow down page load time and can only improve your page load speed if replacing your current commenting platform with Vuukle’s.
</li>
<li>
Design: Beautiful, clean, and versatile design with customization options available.
</li>
<li>
Customization: Customize page location, fonts, space, colors, themes, icons and headings to meet your brand needs.
</li>
<li>
Implementation: Easily place anywhere on the page within a minute.
</li>
<li>
Device Support: Supports all devices including AMP and APPS.
</li>
<li>
Self-Recommendation Newsfeed: This optional feature highlights trending stories from your own site to bring users back to your pages, increasing page views, engagement, and CTRs.
</li>
<li>
Comment Import: Import existing comments to Vuukle from any platform at any time.
</li>
<li>
Media Sharing: Rich text editor with GIFs, image support, editing, and hyperlinking of comments.
</li>
<li>
Comment Threads: Users can like, share, and flag comments.
</li>
<li>
Comment Moderation: Save time from manually moderating with our optional auto-moderation feature. Powered through Open AI, this feature automatically detects and prevents the display of comments, advertisements, GIFs, and images containing spam, hate speech, and foul or offensive language. Customize moderation settings to fit your brand needs and monitor flagged comments per user.
</li>
<li>
Language Support: Localized to any language.
</li>
<li>
Performance Insights: Track real-time and historical performance metrics and user engagement insights from the Vuukle dashboard. Optimize content and performance for maximum reach.
</li>
<li>
User Profiles: Automatically generated user profiles.
</li>
<li>
Automatic Registration: SSO support available.
</li>
<li>
Login: Create an account or login through various social platforms.
</li>
<li>
Generate Revenue: Eligible websites can monetize their commenting section with Vuukle’s programmatic ads. Easily view and track ad performance and yield from the unified workspace.
</li>
<li>
Data Privacy: We are compliant with major privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
</li>
</ul>
* REACTION BAR
The Vuukle Reaction Bar offers users an easy and efficient way to express their sentiment towards the content they read without having to login or engage in discussions. Featuring customizable reaction images and emoticons, users can quickly express their opinion with a few clicks, allowing them to feel a sense of community and connection with the post. Moreover, the Vuukle Reaction Bar is easy to integrate and won’t affect the load speed of your page.
HIGHLIGHTS:
<ul>
<li>
Increase Engagement & User Recirculation: Our reaction widget not only encourages visitors to interact with your content by allowing them to express their opinion, feelings, and sentiment about an article or post with a simple click, but it also increases recirculation and reduces bounce rates by enabling the widget’s self-recommendation feature. This feature presents users with a feed of more of your content that’s relevant to the reaction they’ve submitted, allowing them to easily explore more of your content and remain engaged.
</li>
<li>
Speed: Vuukle has the fastest and most lightweight reaction plugin available for WordPress. Installing the Vuukle reaction widget on your page will not slow down page load time and can even improve page load speed when compared to other reaction widgets.
</li>
<li>
Customization: With Vuukle, you can customize your website’s reaction section with any emoticons and icons. You can choose from the options provided, or upload custom ones to perfectly match your website’s messaging and design. Furthermore, you can adjust the widget’s position and placement, as well as the size and number of reactions you want to display.
</li>
<li>
Placement: This widget can be positioned horizontally, vertically, or as a floating bubble that moves along the page when viewed on a mobile device.
</li>
<li>
Implementation: Implementation is straightforward and can be completed in a matter of minutes, allowing for seamless integration.
</li>
<li>
Device Support: Supports all devices including AMP and APPS.
</li>
<li>
Performance Insights: Our reaction widget captures user actions and sentiments that would otherwise be overlooked, giving content creators a deeper understanding of how their readers are reacting to their content and how to best optimize future content for maximum engagement. The Vuukle dashboard’s analytics page allows publishers to identify and track real-time and historical performance metrics, as well as valuable user engagement insights.
</li>
<li>
Generate Revenue: Eligible websites can monetize their reaction widget section with Vuukle’s programmatic ads. Easily view and track ad performance and yield from the unified workspace.
</li>
<li>
Data Privacy: We are compliant with major privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
</li>
</ul>
* SHARING TOOLBAR
Vuukle’s PowerBar is an innovative and visually interactive sharebarthat helps you maximize the reach and engagement of your website content without compromising page load speed. It’s easy to use and allows users to share content from your website to over 20 popular social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more. You can customize the look and feel of your PowerBar’s sharing buttons and track the number of shares and followers your content has received. What’s more, the PowerBar loads faster, does not sell any user data, and can be integrated with comments to display all types of user engagement related information.
HIGHLIGHTS:
<ul>
<li>
Increase Engagement & Audience Reach: With its quick and easy function, Vuukle’s PowerBar not only encourages existing users to engage with your website, but also provides a great opportunity to increase the number of new users. By allowing visitors to share your content on other platforms outside of your site, you can quickly and effectively expand the reach and visibility of your content, leading to better opportunities for monetization through ads.
</li>
<li>
Speed: Our PowerBar is the lightest and fastest of its kind. With instant activation, your share icons are fetched lightning-fast, so you can rest assured that your website won’t be slowed down by any additional load on your servers.
</li>
<li>
Implementation: Integrate with ease and speed in just a few straightforward steps.
</li>
<li>
Customization: Our intuitive builder page enables you to customize your PowerBar with Vuukle’s icon options, or upload your own icons. You can also easily adjust the widget’s location, social buttons, size, and appearance to suit your needs.
</li>
<li>
Placement: This widget can be positioned horizontally, vertically, or as a floating bubble that moves along the page when viewed on a mobile device.
</li>
<li>
Share Counts: By displaying the number of shares for each social source per post, users can gain a deeper understanding of the level of engagement, allowing them to feel a stronger sense of community around the content.
</li>
<li>
Device Support: Supports all devices including AMP and APPS.
</li>
<li>
Performance Insights: Track real-time and historical performance metrics and user engagement insights from the Vuukle dashboard. Optimize content and performance for maximum reach.
</li>
<li>
Generate Revenue: Eligible websites can monetize their sharebar section with Vuukle’s programmatic ads. Easily view and track ad performance and yield from the unified workspace.
</li>
<li>
Additional Engagement Features: The Vuukle share bar supports integration of our audio-listen to article and bookmarking features, plus has the ability to enable icons that link directly to your reactions and commenting sections to seamlessly encourage engagement further.
</li>
<li>
Data Privacy: We are compliant with major privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
</li>
</ul>
* AUDIO ‘LISTEN TO THE ARTICLE’ TOOL
Vuukle’s audio widget is an excellent way to improve user experience, expand audience reach, increase engagement and time spent on your pages, and reduce bounce rates. By offering users an alternative way to consume your content, this feature makes content more accessible to a wider audience. This can help to expand the reach of your content, as readers with different preferences can enjoy the same content in different formats. Our audio widget works with most languages through the Google Voice Library and can appear as a stand alone button or within Vuukle’s social share bar.
HIGHLIGHTS:
<ul>
<li>
Increase Engagement & Audience Reach: The Vuukle audio feature not only increases user engagement and decreases bounce rates by giving visitors an incentive to stay on the page longer, but also makes your content more accessible to a wider audience, providing an alternative way to consume your content in an interactive and immersive way. This increased engagement and accessibility translates into improved user satisfaction and a better overall user experience as well as higher ad revenue for publishers monetizing from ads.
</li>
<li>
Speed: Adding Vuukle’s extremely fast and lightweight widget to your page won’t only not slow down page load time, but replacing your current audio tool with Vuukle’s can significantly improve your page’s load speed.
</li>
<li>
Design: Our listen button is simple and clean, with customizable features to suit your needs.
</li>
<li>
Customization: Placement, and position can be tailored to suit your branding requirements.
</li>
<li>
Placement: This widget can be placed anywhere on the page, either as a standalone button or as part of Vuukle’s social sharing bar.
</li>
<li>
Implementation: …
</li>
</ul>

Vuukle – Comments, Reactions, Quizzes, Share Bar & Ad Revenue

Vuukle is the AI-native publisher platform trusted by 600+ premium publishers across 75+ markets. Comments, Reactions, Share Bar, Quiz, Audio, Web-Pus …

Disable Emojis (GDPR friendly) vs Vuukle – Comments, Reactions, Quizzes, Share Bar & Ad Revenue