wr

wr / mojito

Public

Slack-style :emoji: shortcodes anywhere on macOS

43
0
100% credibility
Found May 29, 2026 at 52 stars -- GitGems finds repos before they trend. Get early access to the next one.
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AI Analysis
Swift
AI Summary

Mojito is a macOS menu bar app that converts emoji shortcodes like :tada: into actual emoji (🎉) in any text field, featuring a fuzzy-search picker, symbol insertion, usage tracking, and hidden easter eggs.

How It Works

1
📬 Hear about it

A friend tells you about an app that lets you type emoji shortcuts like :tada: anywhere on your Mac.

2
⬇️ Download and install

You download the app, move it to your Applications folder, and grant it permission to watch your keystrokes.

3
Type your first emoji

You type :tada: in any text field and watch it transform into 🎉 the moment you press Enter.

4
Choose your path
🎯
Use the picker

Type a few letters and watch a menu of matching emoji appear next to your cursor, ready to select with arrow keys.

⌨️
Type symbols directly

Enable symbol shortcuts and type :: followed by a name to insert special characters instantly.

5
⚙️ Make it yours

You open the settings to pick your preferred skin tone, exclude apps that already have emoji, or pause the app for an hour.

6
🎮 Find hidden surprises

As you use the app, you discover secret effects and mini-games hidden in the emoji shortcuts.

😎 Emoji master

You can now sprinkle expressive emoji into any conversation with just a few keystrokes, and you've found all the hidden surprises.

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Star Growth

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AI-Generated Review

What is mojito?

Mojito is a menu bar utility for macOS 14+ that converts Slack-style emoji shortcodes into real emoji anywhere you can type. You type `:tada:` and get 🎉, `:heart:` becomes ❤️, and so on. It monitors your keystrokes to detect when you type a colon followed by characters, then shows a fuzzy-matching picker next to your cursor. Hit Enter or Tab to insert, or type the closing colon for an exact match. Beyond emoji, it handles emoticons like `:)` and `<3`, optional symbol insertion for things like `:cmd:` for ⌘, and a built-in GIF picker powered by Giphy. The app lives in your menu bar, lets you pause it for an hour or until tomorrow, and stays out of apps that already have native emoji support like Slack and Discord.

Why is it gaining traction?

The hook is obvious: if you spend time in both Slack and terminal windows, losing emoji shortcodes feels like a step backward. Mojito fills that gap without asking you to change how you work. The fuzzy matching means you don't need to remember exact names, and usage-based ranking means your favorites surface first. Privacy-conscious users appreciate that it skips password fields and makes no outbound requests except for update checks. The project also stands out for its breadth: 17+ languages, a solid privacy story, and what appears to be a genuinely fun set of hidden easter eggs for users who like to explore.

Who should use this?

Mac power users who miss emoji shortcodes from Slack, Discord, or similar tools. Developers who prefer keeping their hands on the keyboard rather than hunting through emoji pickers. Teams working across platforms where some members use Slack daily and others don't will find this reduces friction. If you type emoji frequently and hate the macOS emoji picker panel, this is worth 10 minutes of setup.

Verdict

Mojito solves a real, annoying gap in the macOS text input experience with impressive polish for a 43-star project. The codebase shows thoughtful engineering—SHA-pinned upstream data, proper code signing, and a mature release pipeline—but the credibility score of 1.0% reflects its early stage. Test coverage is unclear from the README, and with only 43 stars, community validation is minimal. Worth installing to try, but don't rely on it for mission-critical workflows yet. Watch for a 1.0 or 2.0 release before committing seriously.

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