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How to Disable WordPress Emojis, Embeds & Other Bloat Safely (Boost Speed 2025)

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How to Disable WordPress Emojis, Embeds & Other Bloat Safely (Boost Speed)
Optimization
By admin December 21, 2025 No Comments

When we think about WordPress performance, the first things that come to mind are caching plugins, server upgrades, and image optimization. But what most site owners never realize is that WordPress loads tons of unnecessary scripts in the background — even if you never use them.

Emojis, embeds, dashicons, REST API links, oEmbed discovery, RSD links, RSS feeds, WLW manifests, shortlink tags, and Gutenberg assets are loaded automatically by WordPress core, themes, and plugins.

On small websites this might not seem like a problem, but if your goal is to beat competitors, rank better, reduce TTFB, and get faster Core Web Vitals scores, removing this junk is mandatory.

Today, you will learn how to disable these elements safely — without breaking your theme or plugins — and without installing useless bloated optimization plugins.

This is a practical, detailed guide, built to help you create a faster, leaner, more secure WordPress website.

Why You Should Remove WordPress Bloat

Modern SEO ranking depends heavily on website speed. Google has been very clear about Core Web Vitals metrics:

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

  • INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

Excess script loading increases:

  • Total blocking time

  • Network usage

  • Render delay

  • JavaScript execution cost

  • Bandwidth consumption

  • Mobile loading time

Even worse, unnecessary JavaScript opens the door to browser parsing issues and plugin conflicts.

This is why performance agencies and big WordPress companies aggressively strip away junk scripts to get the highest Lighthouse scores possible.

By disabling emojis, embeds, and WordPress extras, you will:

  • load fewer files

  • reduce external calls

  • drop JS execution time

  • remove HTTP requests

  • reduce DOM size

  • improve page loading speed

  • see better SEO performance

  • decrease bounce rate

1. How WordPress Emojis Hurt Performance

WordPress loads several emoji scripts by default, including:

wp-emoji-release.min.js

Even if your site never uses emojis, this script loads on every page.

Problem: It blocks rendering.

Google hates unnecessary render-blocking scripts. This file alone can add 50-150ms of processing cost on slow servers.

Disable Emojis Safely

Add this to your theme’s functions.php or site-specific plugin:

function wp_disable_emojis() {
remove_action('wp_head', 'print_emoji_detection_script', 7);
remove_action('wp_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles');
remove_action('admin_print_scripts', 'print_emoji_detection_script');
remove_action('admin_print_styles', 'print_emoji_styles');
remove_filter('the_content_feed', 'wp_staticize_emoji');
remove_filter('comment_text_rss', 'wp_staticize_emoji');
remove_filter('wp_mail', 'wp_staticize_emoji_for_email');
add_filter('tiny_mce_plugins', 'wp_disable_emoji_tinymce');
}
function wp_disable_emoji_tinymce($plugins) {
if (!is_array($plugins)) return array();
return array_diff($plugins, array('wpemoji'));
}
add_action('init', 'wp_disable_emojis');

This removes all frontend, backend, RSS, and admin emoji load.

2. Disable WordPress Embeds

WordPress embeds allow users to paste URLs from YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, etc., and automatically embed media.

Sounds good, right?
But here is the problem…

WordPress loads:

wp-embed.min.js

on every front-end page.
Even if you do not embed anything.

Remove Embeds Completely

To push performance even further, especially on JavaScript-heavy themes or page builders, follow our detailed tutorial on How to Defer JavaScript to Improve PageSpeed Insights Score and eliminate render-blocking scripts for a smoother loading experience.

Insert:

function wp_remove_embeds(){
remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_discovery_links');
remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_host_js');
remove_filter('oembed_dataparse', 'wp_filter_oembed_result', 10);
remove_action('rest_api_init', 'wp_oembed_register_route');
wp_dequeue_script('wp-embed');
}
add_action('init', 'wp_remove_embeds');

This removes:

  • discovery

  • REST routes

  • JS file loading

Your site becomes cleaner and faster instantly. If you don’t want to touch code or something breaks after removing embeds, you can get it fixed professionally by using our Emergency WordPress Support Service where we diagnose and repair issues within hours.

3. Disable Dashicons for Visitors

Dashicons is a 70KB icon pack used by WordPress admin pages.

But WordPress loads it on the frontend for all visitors, even if visitors do not need it.

Remove it safely:

function wp_remove_dashicons(){
if(!is_user_logged_in()){
wp_deregister_style('dashicons');
}
}
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'wp_remove_dashicons');

4. Disable Gutenberg Block CSS if not using block themes

If you use Elementor / Divi / Bricks / Oxygen, you do not need Gutenberg block CSS.

function disable_wp_gutenberg_css(){
wp_dequeue_style('wp-block-library');
wp_dequeue_style('wp-block-library-theme');
wp_dequeue_style('global-styles');
}
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'disable_wp_gutenberg_css', 100);

5. Remove Shortlink Tags

Shortlinks are not used anymore.

remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_shortlink_wp_head');
remove_action('template_redirect', 'wp_shortlink_header');

6. Remove REST API Links

REST API links slow crawling and browsers.

remove_action('wp_head', 'rest_output_link_wp_head');
remove_action('template_redirect', 'rest_output_link_header');

7. Disable RSS Feeds (optional)

If you run a membership or content-locked website, disable RSS feeds:

function disable_wp_rss(){
wp_die('RSS feed disabled');
}
add_action('do_feed', 'disable_wp_rss', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rdf', 'disable_wp_rss', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss', 'disable_wp_rss', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss2', 'disable_wp_rss', 1);
add_action('do_feed_atom', 'disable_wp_rss', 1);

8. Remove jQuery Migrate

Old themes and plugins rely on this, so use only if safe:

function remove_jquery_migrate( $scripts ) {
if ( ! is_admin() && isset( $scripts->registered['jquery'] ) ) {
$scripts->registered['jquery']->deps = array();
}
}
add_action( 'wp_default_scripts', 'remove_jquery_migrate' );

9. Remove XML-RPC

XML-RPC opens security holes. If you want to go deeper into XML-RPC security and learn how attackers exploit it, you can follow our dedicated step-by-step guide on How to Block XML-RPC Attacks in WordPress to keep your site protected from brute force and spam threats.

add_filter('xmlrpc_enabled', '__return_false');

10. Remove Generator Tag for Security

remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

Is Removing WordPress Bloat Safe?

Yes, if done properly.

These scripts are:

  • not essential

  • not required for SEO

  • not required for performance

  • not needed for visitors

Professional WordPress speed optimization teams remove these settings every day.

Thousands of production websites run without emojis, embeds, or shortlinks.

Why Plugins Are Not Recommended

There are plugins that disable emojis and embeds, but plugins:

  • add more overhead

  • add more database calls

  • conflict with other plugins

  • inject queries

  • slow back-end

Direct code is cleaner, lighter, and more stable. Still, if you prefer using plugins instead of manual code, we have reviewed the top tools in our full comparison of the Best WordPress Caching Plugins so you can choose the right performance solution for your website.

Real-World Performance Impact

Since images normally make up the largest portion of page weight, you can boost performance even more by following our guide on How to Optimize WordPress Images Without Losing Quality and drastically reduce loading time for every page.

After removing this bloat:

Page size reduces

30-80KB on average

Requests reduce

2–7 requests removed

TTFB improves

20-80ms faster

JS execution saved

5–20ms faster. To squeeze even more speed out of your website and improve both mobile and desktop scores, follow our complete guide on Lazy Loading in WordPress to delay non-critical assets and drastically reduce initial load time.

On mobile, this matters even more. If your server still feels slow even after removing unnecessary scripts, check out our in-depth guide on How to Reduce Time to First Byte (TTFB) in WordPress to improve server response time and overall speed performance.

Testing Before and After

Use:

  • PageSpeed Insights

  • GTmetrix

  • Pingdom

  • Chrome Lighthouse

Measure:

  • DOM size

  • JS weight

  • CLS movement

  • First render

  • Full load time

Your numbers will noticeably change.

Who Should Not Disable These?

Do not remove embeds if:

  • You use WordPress posts for sharing YouTube embeds

  • You use Gutenberg block embeds

Do not remove feeds if:

  • You have podcast RSS

  • You use services like Feedburner

For most basic business websites, removal is perfectly safe.

Final Thoughts

Speed matters more than ever before. To improve loading speed even further, especially the Largest Contentful Paint score, you can follow our complete guide on How to Optimize WordPress for LCP and dramatically enhance your Core Web Vitals performance.

Users expect instant loading.

Google rewards fast websites.

If you want higher conversions, improved rankings, and professional performance, removing unnecessary assets like emojis and embeds is one of the simplest optimization wins.

Even large WordPress performance agencies charge hundreds of dollars to apply these basic improvements.

By following this tutorial, you are getting the same advantage for free.

Your website becomes:

  • faster

  • lighter

  • cleaner

  • more SEO-friendly

  • more professional

This is must-apply tuning for every serious website.

FAQs

1. Is it safe to disable WordPress emojis?

Yes. WordPress will work fine without emoji scripts. Browser emojis still function.

2. Can removing embeds break YouTube content?

Only if your site relies on auto-embedding features. Most sites do not.

3. Will these changes improve SEO?

Yes. Cleaner code increases performance metrics and ranking signals.

4. Is disabling Gutenberg CSS safe?

If you use a page builder like Elementor or Divi, it is safe.

5. Should beginners remove REST and shortlinks?

Yes. They are unused features with zero benefit.

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