When the enable emoji shortcuts
setting is enabled emoticons like :)
get turned into actual emoji (). However, this can’t be bypassed with a simple backslash before it (\:)). This is inconsistent with other things where escape works, and on Discord, you have a similar setting:
However it is not forced – if I want :-)
raw I can just type a backslash before it, and I get what I want.
To bypass it you need to use something like a zero-width character in between, or wrap a letter in angle brackets in the middle since those don’t render, etc. i.e.
:<g>), :)
which causes a bad ux for users who want a bit more freedom with how they write emoji.