Life

Gchat's Been Hiding 10 Secret Emojis From You

July 17, 2014

viktoriayams/Fotolia

There really is a holiday for everything these days — even emojis. Things I learned today include the fact that July 17 is World Emoji Day, and wouldn’t you know it? That’s this Thursday! Just in case you’re already emoji’d out with the standard sort of “what does your favorite emoji say about you?” fare we’ve covered before, though, here’s a little tidbit you may not know: Gchat has a set of super secret, hidden emojis you can only access by typing in the correct code. And they’re all amazing.

You already know that you’ve got a huge library of little images to describe how you’re feeling at any given time at your fingertips in Gchat; all you have to do is click the little face icon on the left of your chat window and you can scroll through all your options with ease. According to a little website called Google Chat Emoticons, however, you can also access thirteen other ones by manually typing in the corresponding code. Of course we had to try them out; how could we let something that good pass us by?

It’s worth noting that some of them — the cowbell, crab, monkey lips, moustache, robot, and “rock out” ones — wouldn’t work for me on my PC; they did, however, work for our very own Julie Alvin on her Mac, so, y’know, just something to keep in mind. I was able to find a few of the ones I couldn’t manually type in the actual Gchat emoji menu, though. Go figure. Anyway, if you want to add a little spice to your next chat window, give these suckers a shot:

1. Cowbell

Code: +/’\

Looks like:

Because we’ve got a fever. And the only prescription…is more cowbell.

2. Diabolical Creature

Code: }:-)

Looks like:

Sure, we could go ahead and call this one a devil — but “diabolical creature” is so much more fun.

3. Crab

Code: V.v.V

Looks like:

Julie tells me this one scuttles around. You have no idea how sad I am that I have been denied this vision.

4. Wince

Code: >.<

Looks like:

I actually think this guy looks more like he’s really angry than like he’s wincing, but maybe that’s just me. Either that or he’s a little, un, constipated. Take your pick.

5. Broken Heart

Code: </3

Looks like:

Awwwww, come here, boo. You need a hug.

6. Pig

Code: :(:)

Looks like:

That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.

7. Kiss

Code: :-x

Looks like:

I thought this was a standard emoji — it was back when we called them “emoticons” — but apparently I was wrong. We must share our kisses in secret, far from the prying eyes of Google.

8. Monkey Lips

Code: :(|)

Looks like: