Facebook chat emoticons

When we talk about which emoticon or smiley is the ‘best’, it’s difficult to be objective. The reason is that people use chat programs and software, especially Facebook chat, for very different reasons. Facebook chat emoticons are changeable. Lovers often communicate with each other using this system (especially those who are forced to be apart for some reason), and so they would probably claim that the romantic emotions and smileys that they use to pass on their love are the best.

They are not, however, the only people to use it. Colleagues and friends may use Facebook just to pass the time, to idle away hours spent in a boring office doing spreadsheets and word documents. This also means that they might want some emoticons to distract them from their mundane work. A heart will probably not suffice in this situation, and they may want to use something with a little bit of imagination and innovation – like a robot emoticon for example.

With all of this in mind, we polled thousands of Facebook users who regularly use Facebook chat as a means to communicate with their friends, and we have compiled a list of the most famous and best loved smileys that they use. You might be surprised with this list!

The most popular Facebook chat emoticons

Number 5 – Facebook Shark emoticon
One of the newest Facebook chat emoticon is the shark – it’s something which has taken the world of social networking by storm due to it being cool and a little edgy! It also fit in very well with the style of Facebook, which seems to frequently reference the 1980s. One of the most famous movies of this time period was Jaws, the film about a menacing shark who would eat people for stepping into his zone – I’m not sure you’ve ever experienced this type of fear, but if you have then maybe you can relate to sending the emote to someone to scare them!

Facebook Smiley number 4 – Penguin emote
Another of the ‘later added’ smileys, the penguin, has become extremely popular due to the variety of meanings it portrays, and the cuteness of its little beak! The penguin is a winter bird, and so with Christmas approaching it only seems appropriate to list it in this top five list!

Emotion 3 – Pacman symbol
Before the likes of Naruto and before the Nintendo Wii was a glint in Nintendo’s eye, there was another heroic video game character who liked to run around and eat food, and often had problems with evil monsters. I am, of course, talking about Pacman – the little emoticon face with a big heart!Now that you can use this face on Facebook chat, you can remind those old friends of yours who the real king of the game is!

Facebook emotion 2 – Love heart
It had to be in the top five list, and the love heart appears at number two. There are a ridiculous amount of couples who use FB, and nearly all of them at some time or another use this type of romantic emotion to show their feelings and to make themselves understood. This smiley, along with the kissing lips icon are the generally weapon of mass destruction when it comes to lovers online!

Best Facebook smilie # 1 – The smile
It’s simple, it’s a bit plain, it’s an internet classic – the smile smiley is the easiest to remember and the most used emoticon on the planet! People use it everywhere, and Facebook chat has perfected this little face with the positive attitude for use in its software. Cheer someone up today – send them a smile!

It’s possible that you dont’ agree with the exact order in this list, or perhaps even with the content of it – but you can not deny that Facebook chat has redefined the playing field for people who communicate online! The smile is one which can not be replicated, so let’s cheer for the most positive of the Facebook chat emoticons!

The launch of Facebook chat brought about a cataclysmic shift in the world of online communication and social networking, not to mention when people found all of the Facebook chat emoticons. Nobody previously had considered the possibility that a social network, such as Facebook or Myspace, would try to eat into the online live chat service which was being offered by companies such as MSN and Yahoo Messenger.

When people first saw Facebook chat, they didn’t know what to expect, and so some were initially underwhelmed. They thought that the fulyl javascript coded engine lacked a little bit of the speed and quickness which we always associate with Facebook products. It was indeed the speed and simplicity of Facebook’s overall design which allowed it to become the most popular social network in the universe. Let me explain:

Five years ago, Myspace was certainly the best and most popular social network on the planet. It was so huge that companies invested millions just to be associated with its brand power and its expanding client base. It had a problem, however – the people who were online and communicating with it were young, and they demanded extreme levels of customization on their pages. It wasn’t long before the once attractive site became clogged with shiny glitter graphics and flash plugins and widgets which broke some people’s homepages and disrupted the user experience for people who were browsing the site.

Facebook changed all of that. With a cleaner design and a calm exterior, it managed to attract key market segments to its product, and away from Myspace. As anyone who follows social networking knows, there are tipping points which, once crossed, can not be reversed. People left Myspace’s immature product and found a new, untarnished home.

The natural progression for Facebook, after becoming the market leader, was to add services which its users would need – and that happened to be live chat. It was a master-stroke, and their software quickly became one of the most used on the internet. They managed to replicate the clean design and layout, and focus on their key product which is communication.

Facebook chat emoticons

One thing that surprised a lot of technology insiders and analysts was the lack of emoticons for Facebook chat. Smileys have been an integral part of the social media landscape ever since MSN launched more than ten years ago, and so many people were stunned when there was no list of Facebook chat emoticons. This turned out to be another clever move by the blue and white monster, however.

There were smileys and emotions included in the software, however they were hidden from view. To find them the users just needed to learn certain key combinations, to insert them into their chats. How were they found? Trial and error – but luckily we’ve noted down all of the possible Facebook chat emoticons so that you don’t need to worry about it!

There is quite a range of smilies available for you to use in your conversations. The range is from ‘traditional’ (we might term these as some emotes that you can find in other chat programs, software or social networking sites) to ‘innovative’ (ones that Facebook decided to add because they wanted to set new levels of cool in their site). They work extremely well together, and they give the users the exact range of fun and enjoyment, but maintaining Facebook’s mature and cool exterior!

As previously mentioned, you can find all of the Facebook chat emoticons in future posts, but for now let us know if you have any more information about the history of the company in the comments section!