Compare software

Characters vs Emote: catalog facts
Characters	Emote
Best for: Finding and copying special characters and emoji on a GNOME desktop	Best for: Linux users who want a system-wide emoji picker
Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later and BSD-3-Clause licences.	Free Free and open source under the GPL 3.0 or later.
Linux	Linux
Keyword search across Unicode characters Browse by category including emoji and math symbols All 3 strengths for Characters Keyword search across Unicode characters Browse by category including emoji and math symbols Actively maintained GNOME app	Quick popup for searching and inserting emoji Native GTK4 and libadwaita interface All 3 strengths for Emote Quick popup for searching and inserting emoji Native GTK4 and libadwaita interface Available on Flathub and Snap
Linux only Basic feature set aimed at lookup and copy	Linux only Version 5.0 is still in testing
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND BSD-3-Clause	License: GPL-3.0-or-later
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Characters apps.gnome.org/Characters Catalog checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Emote github.com/tom-james-watson/Emote Catalog checked October 1, 2026

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