LitEmoji causing timeouts over ajax submissions

[jhealey5]

Describe the bug

We have a front-end form with an autopilot integration which, after updating to 3.15+ causes timeouts and subsequently fails to submit the form when using client-side ajax submissions.

I've tracked it down to the LitEmoji helper on line 409 of src/base/Integration.php

$settings = Json::decode(LitEmoji::shortcodeToUnicode(Json::encode($settings)));

Removing the LitEmoji::shortcodeToUnicode method prevents the timeout occurring.

Is there some way to disable this or otherwise fix it? We can't upgrade this client to Craft 4/5 just yet.

Steps to reproduce

Not sure if this can be easily re-created, may depend on several factors including server.

Form settings

• Multi-page form: No
• Submission Method: Ajax
• Client-side Validation: Yes
• Custom Form Templates: No

Craft CMS version

Craft Pro 3.9.13

Plugin version

1.6.45

Multi-site?

No

Additional context

No response