# Gmail emoticons **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114 "2010-06-22T12:57:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/1 "2010-06-22T12:57:24Z")
In gmail, using the normal view, there are two palettes of smiley icons to choose from when composing messages. The first, square-shaped mostly animated faces, have a couple of odd ones I can’t figure out. At the end of the blue-range line there’s a strange robot-looking thing… wtf is that meant to signify? and then the monkey-like thing at the end of the same row, what is it saying? “oh no”? “oh wow”? “you suck”? Just next to that there’s an odd pink one… what is that thing?? 😕 Also, how are these icons embedded in messages? Are they actual images or links? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/2 "2010-06-22T13:59:32Z")
I’ve no idea what they all mean, but they are embedded as links to images that are hosted by Google. Interestingly (and I’ve only just discovered this) provided you’re in full edit mode, you can drag any image from another browser window or tab into a Gmail message, and it will embed that image into the message. Finally, if you click the “labs” button at the top of the Gmail screen - the little green bottle - you can turn on the function that adds another few palettes of emoji emoticons to that function. As well as a permanent “embed image” button for any image you like. ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/3 "2010-06-22T14:03:45Z")
My guess The blue thingie is supposed to stand for “cool” The monkey is a monkey and the pink thing is a pig. They don’t make much sense, but there you have it. I never used to use emoticons before, but these days I seem to be using them more and more. Take a look at the ones used in Japanese phones -\> [emoji](http://labs.yumemi.co.jp/labs/mod/ref_emoji_i_to_es.html) Lots of crazy stuff. As for the images, they are animated/normal GIFs. Apparently, they are called goomoji! Content-Type: image/gif; name=“4EF.gif” Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 X-Attachment-Id: 4EF@goomoji.gmail Content-ID: \<4EF@goomoji.gmail\> ---
**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/4 "2010-06-23T12:13:36Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I’ve no idea what they all mean, but they are embedded as links to images that are hosted by Google. > > Interestingly (and I’ve only just discovered this) provided you’re in full edit mode, you can drag any image from another browser window or tab into a Gmail message, and it will embed that image into the message. > > Finally, if you click the “labs” button at the top of the Gmail screen - the little green bottle - you can turn on the function that adds another few palettes of emoji emoticons to that function. As well as a permanent “embed image” button for any image you like. Regarding the labs feature - where exactly is that? Do you need to click “more”? I don’t see it anywhere ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/5 "2010-06-23T13:28:47Z")
‘Labs’ (a green lab-bottle icon) is found on top-right of screen. On my screen right now, starting from the outermost-edge on right then moving towards center, it has the ‘sign-out’ words, then ‘help’, then ‘settings’, then the green bottle. The e-mail address name is adjacent to the bottle (bottle is between settings and name of account). I don’t think that anything needs to be enabled to have the bottle show up, but I may be mistaken since I have used Labs for so long. ---
**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/6 "2010-06-24T13:29:14Z")
Curious indeed… it doesn’t show in my account. From right, it’s sign out, help, settings, account name. _sniff_ ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/7 "2010-06-24T15:51:25Z")
Looking [here](http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/introducing-gmail-labs.html), it kinda looks like you have to ‘enable’ Labs before you can start using (and seeing) it. Go through your ‘settings’ and see if there is a way to ‘enable’ it (???). Wish I could help ya more as I have found a number of the Labs apps to be beneficial. From that linked site: “When you sign in, you’ll see a new page in Settings called Labs. It has a list of experimental new features, and you can enable or disable each one…” It may be found in the 'main Google page" where you can add all the other stuff that Google has. Not the e-mail settings, per se, but where you can sign-in at the main [Google.com](http://Google.com) ‘search page’ that also has a sign-in link for ‘main account’ and also found at top-right of page once you move the mouse around outside of the search box- if that makes sense to you. You could always send an e-mail to Google folks - they have _always_ responded to me fairly quickly, fwiw. HTH & good luck… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/8 "2010-06-25T00:43:28Z")
Find out what key combination produces that smiley, and then look for that combination in a list of emoticons (google for that.). ---
**Author:** ![Random\_Design](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Random\_Design](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_Design)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-emoticons/544114/9 "2010-06-25T08:55:59Z")
oh, duh me, just go to Settings \> Labs \> Enable icons. :smack: