Holding keys triggers the macOS alternative symbol selector incorrectly.
@acarl005 is already working on this.
Since Aug 25, 2026.
Assessment
This issue has not been assessed yet.
Description
Discord username (optional)
josh#5327
Describe the bug
As discussed in this Discord thread, holding certain keys (such as L or U on a US keyboard) will not repeat but will eventually trigger the OS's "alternative symbol selector."
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The selector appears to be anchored incorrectly, always appearing in the bottom-left of the screen even though it should be appearing anchored nearby the actual cursor.
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It's probably okay if the popup appears in a command-line context, but it also appears in the context of using the keyboard to do something other than enter text, like navigating around in normal mode in
nvim.
This can be worked around by disabling the OS feature entirely using defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
This is seems like it would be related to #1594.
To Reproduce
- Launch Warp.
- Press and hold the U or L keys.
- After a second or two, observe the symbol popup in the bottom left of the screen.
Expected behaviour
In an ideal world:
- Holding a key while the symbol selector is enabled OS-wide should pop the selector up in the proper spot.
- If Warp can detect a program is using the keyboard for navigation, the symbol selector should be suppressed and never appear.
A more practical solution might be simply have a toggle in the settings for whether or not the symbol popup behavior is suppressed all the time. Presumably it is possible to opt-out of the functionality in some contexts because I don't have this issue in Terminal.app or iTerm 2.
Screenshots
No response
Operating System
None
OS Version
13.1 (22C65)
Shell Version
zsh 5.8.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin22.0)
Warp Version
v0.2023.01.03.08.03.stable_01
Additional context
No response
Does this block you from using Warp daily?
No
Warp Internal (ignore): linear-label:b8107fdf-ba31-488d-b103-d271c89cac3e
None
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- Rust
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