If you’re using Mastodon through your server’s website on a computer, you can control it almost entirely through your keyboard. Particular keys will carry out particular functions, and you can type emoji too.
Keyboard shortcuts on Mastodon
Mastodon’s keyboard shortcuts are always on, press shift + ? (or just ? on some keyboard layouts) to see a complete guide to which keys do what. The shortcuts are also known as “hotkeys”.
Note that some of these shortcuts are only useful in the advanced web interface (multicolumn) mode, but most of them can be used with the default single column mode.
For your convenience, here’s the complete list:
| r | Reply to post |
| ctrl+enter | Publish post |
| m | Mention author |
| p | Open author’s profile |
| f | Favourite post |
| b | Boost post |
| enter, o | Open post |
| e | Open media |
| x | Show/hide text behind CW |
| h | Show/hide media |
| up, k | Move up in the list |
| down, j | Move down in the list |
| 1-9 | Focus column |
| n | Focus compose textarea |
| alt+n | Start a new post |
| alt+x | Show/hide CW field |
| backspace | Navigate back |
| s | Focus search bar |
| esc | Unfocus compose textarea/search |
| g+h | Open home timeline |
| g+n | Open notifications column |
| g+l | Open local timeline |
| g+t | Open federated timeline |
| g+d | Open direct messages column |
| g+s | Open get started column |
| g+f | Open favourites list |
| g+p | Open pinned posts list |
| g+u | Open your profile |
| g+b | Open blocked users list |
| g+m | Open muted users list |
| g+r | Open follow requests list |
| ? | Display hotkeys list |
Typing emoji through a keyboard on Mastodon
If you’re using Mastodon on a computer, you can type emoji directly with your keyboard:
- Type : (colon) and a keyword without a space, a dropdown menu will appear with the top five matching emoji. For example :sun will bring up the top five emoji matching the keyword “sun”.
- Pick the emoji you want by moving the arrow keys, and then press enter on the one you want.
- If the emoji you want isn’t there, click on the 🙂 icon at the bottom to open the emoji picker which shows the complete selection.
If there are more than five matches for a keyword, they will not all appear on the dropdown. If so, you’ll need to search for them by clicking on the picker icon 🙂 at the bottom of the post writing box.
An emoji may appear for several keywords, and the keywords are also partly based on the alt text name of an emoji. If the keywords you type don’t bring up the emoji you want, typing the emoji’s name will always work. To find an emoji’s name, go to it in the picker and then hover your mouse over it to show its name.