Customization of Quick Emoji reactions

[IanKeen]

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Right now GitHub makes it super easy to react to PR comments with this little guy:

But quite often I want to react with other emoji so I'd like to suggest an enhancement. I was thinking perhaps a file that we could drop in the root .github folder that allows us to add a second row of emoji that we specify?

Or even just a button that shows a picker giving access to all the emoji available in text fields via the :smile: syntax?

[blakemcanally]

I'd love to see a more generalized emoji reaction that let us use whatever emoji's we wanted from an emoji picker, removing the artificial limitations.

[DNin01]

Mostly, I think they just want to make sure users (and the screen) aren't overloaded with potential reaction options.

[JFWooten4]

Might a simple 🔎 button easily overcome that? Only overload yourself by choice. 🧐

[swiftyfinch]

It would be nice to have an additional tick symbol ✅ emoji at least.

[benjub]

Probably one of the most useful reaction emojis: this would allow to avoid lengthening threads with comments merely saying "Done".

[zyansheep]

Would really love a 🤔 reaction so I can tell people that I've seen something and am thinking about it, but not necessarily agreeing with it (👍), or just looking at it (👀) which could also imply other things... 👀

[s-barannikov]

I'd also love to have 👌 reaction, meaning I acknowledged a comment / response in a review. A comment containing just "OK" makes the planet less green for little reason. 👀 would do as well, but it isn't exactly that.

[kj800x]

Some of the emoji names in the current set are also highly misleading at times. I have seen :confused: be used to express bittersweet emotions and sorrow such as when a large project is finally sunset. I've also seen :laugh: be used to express joy, which is very different from laughter. Having a PR that makes someone happy is very different from someone laughing at my PR. With the recent push for more communication to be done online, it's more important than ever that people don't misunderstand, and emojis are rife for misunderstanding especially when limited so much.

[cemreefe]

I'm surprised that this hasn't been mentioned, but I really feel the lack of a plus ➕ emoji here, where I see a comment from someone else on a PR and would like to emphasize that I agree with the point made. Feels like it is a basic one really.

[pikuso]

I completely agree with this suggestion! The current emoji reactions are great for quick feedback, but having the ability to add custom emoji reactions would significantly enhance the expressiveness of our interactions on GitHub.

A customizable file in the root .github folder to specify additional emoji sounds like a fantastic idea. It would allow teams to tailor reactions to their unique workflows and preferences.

Alternatively, a button that opens a picker for all available emoji via the 😄 syntax would be a flexible and user-friendly solution. This would provide a wider range of expressive options without requiring configuration.

This enhancement would definitely improve the user experience on GitHub. Looking forward to seeing this feature considered!

[ejorgensen22]

+1 to allow for the addition of an emoji picker or anything that would allow 🌭 to be made available.

[benjub]

There are merits in having a very limited list of reaction emojis: the more emojis you add to denote subtler and subtler nuances, the less of a universal language it becomes. You have to explain newcomers to a project when to use "thumbs up" and when to use "plus", (to take the example of https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/69934#discussioncomment-9534999 above), you take the risk of different people using them with different implicit meanings, you trigger endless questions: how to compare a comment having received 3 "thumbs up" and 2 "pluses" with a comment having received 4 "thumbs up" and 1 "plus" (and what if a given person reacted with both emojis...), etc.

On the other hand, I think that a "Done" reaction emoji (probably a checkmark) is really missing: its meaning is clear, and this would avoid lengthening threads with comments merely saying "Done".

[PerchunPak]

we really really really need a clown emoji

[DNin01]

For adding more choices, I could see an emoji picker solving the problem of the reaction menu getting too crowded, but if there were dozens of reaction options, the reaction statistics row could also have dozens of items, so if the palette of reactions to choose from was expanded, the statistics would need to be rethought.

Perhaps if the reaction statistics didn't fit on the screen, some of the items could be squished together into one, with a single number counting up the number of people who left reactions, and clicking it would show them all on a hovercard.

👍 30 👎 4 ❤️ 12 🎉 7 🚀 4 👀 3 🤔 2
——————— ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ———————
👍 30 👎 4 ❤️🎉🚀… 20

[JFWooten4]

I like seeing individual emojis with their own counters since it gives you more social proof when a community collectively shares diverse reactions. 💭 Worst case you use multiple lines, and that keeps it easy to pile on to existing emojis.

[liias]

What's lacking for me:

• acknowledgment of completion: ✅ or ✔️
• thank you: 🙇

[JFWooten4]

There are just so many variants of everyone's wants, that it really doesn't seem like anything other than all emojis will fit the bill if you ask me