Google Talk gets graphical smilies

[Jeff]

Google has quietly added animated smilies or "emoticons" to the Gmail-integrated version of Google Talk. They've obviously had a lot of feedback from the AOL-crowd, who apparently loves smilies. But Google has tried to appease the purists who like Google Talk's clean interface. These emoticons begin by showing you what you typed, then rotate or morph into a more traditional smiley. Most of them are black on white (like the text in chat), with a few splashes of color.

Here's a complete list:

Emoticon	Type this...	to get this!
	<3	heart
	:(|)	monkey
	\m/	rock out!
	:-o	shocked
	:D	grin
	:(	frown
	X-(	angry
	B-)	cool
	:'(	crying
	=D	big grin
	;)	wink
	:-|	straight face
	=)	big smile
	:-D	nose grin
	;^)	big nose wink
	;-)	nose wink
	:-)	nose smile
	:-/	skeptical
	:P	sticking tongue out

As we previously reported, Gmail Chat is being rolled out as a beta. Some people will see it, others won't. You won't be able to run Chat if you're using SSL encryption (https://) to access your Gmail. And so far, these emoticons haven't found there way into the standalone Google Talk program, but it's a pretty safe bet that's next.

Because these use many of the standard text shortcuts for emoticons, if you use Chat to talk to other people using different software (Gaim, Trillian, etc.), most of these are already translated into graphical emoticons. Some of the obscure ones ("rock out!") will not.

Could the integration of emoticons be a sign of what's to come? Is this just one more step in the preparation for the announced interoperability of Google Talk and AIM? We've already seen a preview of Google Talk with buddy icons.

Let's hope Google doesn't turn Google Talk into another bloated "me-too" instant messenger.

[Hasan]

I actually liked the last comment of Jeff.
Yes we do not want to see another bloated IM program.
But I did like the emoticons as they are as simple as they can be.
Most of them are merely 90 degrees rotated text based emoticons.
The simpler the better.

[annagassan]

Here's my favorite google smilie }:-) (not on the above list)Try it.

Does anyone know of a complete list of google smilies? I like the google versions. Clean and understated, not like the one I just used for the icon of this post!

[Jeff]

That's a good one! Here's what it looks like in Google Chat:

Anyone know of any other "secret" Google emoticons?

[Jeff]

Here's one more. Type >.< to get a wince:

[Spike]

Maybe they're adding them as they think of them or develop them. I just tried a bunch that I know that relate to ">.<" and none seemed to work, so maybe Google is just adding them as they go?

[halogen8]

You won't be able to run Chat if you're using SSL encryption (https://) to access your Gmail.

That used to be the case.....however.....

I just logged into gmail today, using https, and chat now works.

Now we can have our cake and eat it too, security with all the latest features. Enjoy!

[carbonize]

Missing +/'\ but that may of been added since this page was written.

[shadowtiger9]

yea if u also do: + / ' \ without the spaces it turns into a cowbell or something......its koool :D

[sikku]

for kiss :* or :-*
for pig :(:)
To get the text as bold type * on both the sides off text...