GTK+ 2.12 brings a completely new tooltip implementation which allows many things that were not possible with the old #GtkTooltips interface. The new possibilities are explained in more detail in the section about #GtkTooltip. A number of complications of the old API have been removed: Tooltips can not be grouped anymore. The old tooltips API allowed this by using multiple #GtkTooltips objects. We believe that the timeout behaviour of the new tooltips implementation is better and makes it unnecessary to use grouping as a way to overcome shortcomings of the fast-tooltips mode. Timeouts can not be set individually anymore. Instead there are settings #GtkSettings:gtk-tooltip-timeout, #GtkSettings:gtk-tooltip-browse-timeout and #GtkSettings:gtk-tooltip-browse-mode-timeout to influence the behaviour of tooltips globally. Here is an example of setting a tooltip on a widget with the old API: GtkTooltips *tooltips = gtk_tooltips_new (); gtk_tooltips_set_tip (tooltips, widget, "Some tips", NULL); Using the new tooltips API, it is no longer necessary to create an object: gtk_widget_set_tooltip_text (widget, "Some tips"); Similarly, setting a tooltip on a #GtkToolItem gets simplified from gtk_tool_item_set_tooltip (toolitem, toolbar->tooltips, "tool tip", NULL); to gtk_tool_item_set_tooltip_text (toolitem, text);