How to add emoticons/smileys in GMail
Have you ever wished to add emoticons to GMail? If so, here is a Greasemonkey script to add smilies/emoticons.
GMail, to me, is still the best webmail. It has loads of features, a minimalist look, and most of all, is owned by Google. GMail pioneered the AJAXed interface for webmail. Yahoo and Microsoft followed.
However, being the first to grace AJAX, GMail does miss some functionality. One of them is smileys/emoticons. Whenever you type the text for emoticon, it is sent as those characters, rather than being converted. There is an easy work-around to this. Here are the steps:
- Download Firefox (if you haven’t).
- Install the Greasemonkey extension.
- Restart Firefox (duh!).
- Install GMail Emoticons script.
After you install the script, go to the Compose mode in GMail. There will be a link called Emoticons! in the right hand side, near the “Check Spelling” link.

Once you click on it, you will be presented with a window that looks like this:

To add any smiley, just drag and drop it to the writing pane in Compose mode.
Note: DO NOT drag the smiley to any place other than the writing pane, otherwise it will mess up the written stuff.
Note: This script is currently broken, because of the newer version of GMail. I am searching for a newer version of the script, and will update the post once I find it. If you find the newer version of the script, please leave a comment to let us know.

Shankar Ganesh said on August 19th, 2007
Pretty cool, but I usually avoid using emoticons in eMails.
Post authorSumesh said on August 19th, 2007
Avoid emoticons in email, you mean
But I personally believe emoticons are the only way to personalize mails, apart from your writing style.
Ashwini said on August 19th, 2007
I would also love to have it though it should be avoided when your sending a “professional mail”
Post authorSumesh said on August 19th, 2007
@Ashwini: That depends on personal preference. I’ve seen professional bloggers ( Brian Clark of Copyblogger) using smileys. And he’s one of the best in writing skills. I respect his judgement, and follow suit
What Everybody Ought to Know About Blogging - 97 Blog Tips said on August 23rd, 2007
[...] HOW To: Add emoticons/smileys in GMail by Sumesh [...]
Moktoipas said on August 27th, 2007
I made a Firefox extension wich automaticaly replace text smiley with images.
http://www.moktoipas.com/lanews.php?DATE=361
kaiden said on October 21st, 2007
i would like smilys
MNFfreak said on December 6th, 2007
Ummmmmmm ok….:-|
Rakesh Gupta said on December 19th, 2007
your script is not compatible with GMAIL’s new interface version.
Please make the necessary changes
Post authorSumesh said on December 21st, 2007
@Rakesh: This script is not mine, and hence I cannot update the post until the author fixes it. Also, I’ve already written a note at the bottom of the post stating that it is broken. Hope it helps.
» GMail: come aggiungere emoticons e smileys QuickTips said on February 27th, 2008
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