Gnome has its own shortcuts, but sometimes apps would like to have shortcuts to perform actions while the app is in the background.

Wayland’s security focus prevents apps from listening in on all user key presses, which means they can’t know you used a keyboard shortcut unless the app is focused.

The Global Shortcut Portal was made to address this. An app registers for a global shortcut, and when the user activates the shortcut, the portal tells the app that it’s been activated.