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.
Hotkeys on Mastodon
Hotkeys are always on, press shift + ? (or just ? on some keyboard layouts) to see a complete guide to which keys do what.
Note that some of these keys 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 |
| 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.
Just type : (colon) and a keyword without a space. A dropdown menu will appear with the top five matching emoji, and you can pick one with the arrow keys. For example :sun will bring up the top five emoji matching the keyword “sun”.
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 from the picker icon 😂 in the top right corner of the editing box.
The keywords are based on the alt text of an emoji. If you’re wondering how to search for a particular emoji in future, find it in the picker and then hover your mouse over it. The alt text will appear, and you will be able to use this keyword to bring the emoji up using your keyboard.