Grade C

Disable Emojis (GDPR friendly)

Name: Disable Emojis (GDPR friendly)
Rating: 5.0 (108 reviews)
Author: Ryan Hellyer

⤓ Download v1.9.2 on WordPress.org ↗

by Ryan Hellyerupdated 2026-05-10🎲The Mixed Bag

Relief comes when your site finally stops talking to external emoji servers.

Growing

78/100

This tiny tool strips emoji bloat and improves privacy without any annoying upsells.

Loved34/40

Trustworthy10/15

Fair & Honest15/15

Maintained18/18

Momentum12/12

Composite 89, adjusted to 78 (×0.88) for a low verified rating or signs of review manipulation.

✂️

You might not need this plugin. Its core job is small enough to live in your theme's functions.php.

Show the snippet

add_action( 'init', function () {
    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'     );

    add_filter( 'tiny_mce_plugins', function ( $plugins ) {
        return array_diff( (array) $plugins, [ 'wpemoji' ] );
    } );

    add_filter( 'wp_resource_hints', function ( $urls, $relation_type ) {
        if ( 'dns-prefetch' === $relation_type ) {
            $urls = array_diff( $urls, [ apply_filters( 'emoji_svg_url', 'https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2/svg/' ) ] );
        }
        return $urls;
    }, 10, 2 );
} );

Keep in mind:The plugin's PSR-12 architecture and static analysis tooling are not replicated, but the full runtime behaviour is.

More plugins you can skip →

Active installs

~65,000

our estimate · wp.org shows 60k+

→ on track for 70k+in ~2 months

Rating

5.0★

108 ratings

Trend · vs a year ago

+53%

Growing fast

126 → 192 installs/day

What to watch out for

MAJORnear-100% 5★ in bursty pattern

Downloads over time

real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend

2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03

organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median

Growing fast · +53% in the last year

126/day a year ago→192/day today

Reviews

what people actually say

Disable Emojis is a well-regarded, no-frills plugin that reliably strips WordPress emoji code for performance and GDPR compliance, though one user reported it failing to activate entirely.

What people like

+Lightweight and does exactly what it claims — removes WordPress emoji bloat without extra features or upsells×5
+Improves GDPR compliance by stopping DNS prefetching to external emoji servers×2
+Emojis still render naturally in modern browsers after the plugin removes the WordPress-injected code×2
+No nag screens or paid upgrade prompts, unlike competing plugins

Common complaints

−At least one user reported the plugin failing to activate — clicking Activate simply refreshes the page with no effect
−One user noted a missing action hook (embed_head) that the plugin does not cover
−Uncertainty about whether the plugin is still necessary on modern WordPress installs

Review trustReviews look organic

5.00★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 5.00★
2%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members

Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower

2024-05-152025-06-092026-06-04

5★ reviews1–4★ reviews

All-time ratings · 108 total

5★

107

4★

3★

2★

1★

Latest reviews · 90 analyzed

2026-04-30★★★★★It does what it says – Still necessary?theatercuriosum
2025-09-22★★★★★Small but mighty Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems)
2025-06-09★★★★★Clean Up Your Site & Improve GDPR Compliance TraceMyIP
2024-11-13★★★★★Doesn't activate kianmovahhed
2024-04-19★★★★★Does what I need it to Chris Lovie-Tyler
2023-05-29★★★★★Thorough and concise Walf
2022-10-08★★★★★Performance increase Huckleberry
2021-10-03★★★★★I love it!mahyulan
2021-03-01★★★★★Works like a charm Robert
2020-12-30★★★★★Works as expected!emilioborraz1-shot

Releases

recent versions from WordPress.org SVN

2026-05-10v1.9.1
2026-05-10v1.9.2
2026-05-06v1.9
2026-04-29v1.7.8
2026-04-29v1.8
2025-02-16v1.7.7
2023-09-14v1.7.6
2023-06-28v1.7.5

For developers & the curious

the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary above

Download signals

Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.

757

Baseline · median of last 7 organic days

350

Prior 7-day baseline

382

Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days

3,479

Mean release-day peak (30d)

836

Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)

+116.3%

Week-over-week organic trend

Review signals

Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.

20%

Max month share · biggest single 30-day window

2.05

Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty

99%

5★ share in analyzed sample

Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity

—

Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo

4.96 → 5.00★

Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered