Emoji search function misbehaving

[synthfusion]

Using a supported version?

• I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
• I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

Firstly I'd like to know if this is a bug or a "feature". If it's the first one, well here it goes my report. When searching for emoji using the " : " emoji search function, it'd make sense to write something like : joy : for laughs and related, and something like : sad : or : cry : for sad emoji, tears, etc. If it's not a bug, then, who the heck thought this was a good idea?

For real. I'm trynna tell something sad that happened and since " : cry " used to work as it should, now I'm always sending laughs when trynna express sadness.

This didn't happen before. Whoever made this change, it's just unacceptable.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to any chat
2. Look for the "cry" emoji
3. See how a "joy" emoji is suggested instead

Expected result

The cry emoji search should suggest the good old tear emoji, or at least the sob emoji.

Actual result

The cry emoji search suggests joy and laughs emoji.

Screenshots

Signal version

7.6.0

Operating system

Windows 11 23H2

Version of Signal on your phone

No response

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/desktop/7.6.0/b1ab11ea0d86a492a3b94a70a626719cb8d78eecbbf0361bb4103f8ca67445d0.gz

[jamiebuilds-signal]

We recently added aliases to emojis so you didn't have to type the exact string which is why you see more results there. In this case :joy: is aliased to :crying:. But I think we could probably do better with the sort order here by treating the actual name as higher priority and exact (:cry -> "cry" over "crying") matches over everything else.

[synthfusion]

Yes I think that would be better. Plus, there are another couple things I'd add, not only prioritization of the exact strings but also exact words included on strings. For example the holding back tears emoji should be shown before the joy emoji (if you write "tears" the joy emoji would always appear first, and it obviously doesn't contain the word "tears") am I being clear enough? Thank you in advance.

…

On Fri, Apr 26, 2024, 4:39 PM Jamie Kyle ***@***.***> wrote: We recently added aliases to emojis so you didn't have to type the exact string which is why you see more results there. In this case 😂 is aliased to :crying:. But I think we could probably do better with the sort order here by treating the actual name as higher priority and exact ( :cry -> "cry" over "crying") matches over everything else. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6864 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BBESG2REO7QNLHHTMJZA7H3Y7LCS5AVCNFSM6AAAAABGZGLVSKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDAOBQGE2TGNZWGY> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[k3d3]

Is there an alias set for :laughing: -> :joy:? Because even if I type out :laughing all the way to the end, it still suggests :joy: for me instead.

I used to be able to get the correct emoji just via :lau, and now it's impossible to get the correct emoji in the dropdown even when typing the entire name out.

[jamiebuilds-signal]

These are the values for :joy: right now, you can see the entire dataset here: https://gist.github.com/jamiebuilds-signal/6fe0c04c71f59e344c3e2a39e9217d48

{
  "emoji": "😂",
  "shortName": "joy",
  "tags": [
    "joy",
    "crying",
    "crying laughing",
    "face",
    "face with tears of joy",
    "feels",
    "funny",
    "haha",
    "hahaha",
    "happy",
    "hehe",
    "hilarious",
    "laugh",
    "laughing",
    "laughter",
    "lmao",
    "lmfao",
    "lol",
    "lolol",
    "lololol",
    "rofl",
    "roflmao",
    "tear",
    "tears",
    "cry"
  ],
  "rank": 1
},

[indutny-signal]

FWIW, we have a fix coming that would reprioritize search results based on direct prefix match. This should hopefully resolve the issue. Please stay tuned for the next beta release!