How to use minimal character viewer in google docs?

Recently switched to the more minimal version of the character viewer so I could use it keyboard-only. It's such a dream not to have to take my hand off the keyboard anymore. Only problem: it doesn't work when I'm in google docs. I think google docs is probably the thing *causing* this problem, the same way it suppresses voice typing. But is there any way for me to override this so I can easily insert special characters while working in docs? What happens: I try to pull up the character viewer with ⌘+Ctrl+Space. It briefly flashes on screen and then disappears. I'm on a Mac with Apple silicon running Sonoma 14.4.1. I'm using Chrome Version 126.0.6478.183 (Official Build) (arm64) and Firefox 128.0 (64-bit). UPDATE: this also happens EVERYWHERE on Firefox. Nav bar, all websites. As @BenjaminGolder discovered, both types of character picker are suppressed. (Though I've gone back to docs on chrome and found that the same is true there).