New Labs Feature for Gmail: Extra Emoji Emoticons
For the Gmail users out there that find plain text a bit inexpressive, the Google Las team introduced a bunch of emoticons last year, so that you can better convey your message. This April Google Labs introduced the option to insert images in the text body and has now announced the fact that it is extending the previous emoticons offering.
Software Engineer with Google, Darren Lewis, comments: “For a short period of time after launching emoticons for mail, we believed we had successfully captured the entirety of human expression in 19 faces, important representatives of the animal kingdom, emoticons for both love and heartbreak, and, well, a pile of [poo]. But soon a growing feeling of dread overcame the group. How could we have included a [pig] but not a cat? What if I want wine rather than [beer]? And thus was born a new Labs feature: extra emoji, the colorfully animated brainchild of our team in Japan.”
In order to enable the “Extra Emoji” Labs feature, follow these simple steps:
Follow these 3 simple steps in order to activate the new feature provided by Google Labs:
Step 1 – Go to Gmail and login to your account. If you do not have one, perhaps this would be the best time to sign up (it’s free and you get tons of features to play with). If you already have a Google account and you are logged in, access Labs by simply clicking here.
Step 2 – In the top right corner of the screen, right next to your user name you should be able to see “Settings”; click it. Now locate “Labs” and click it as well.
Step 3 – Locate “Extra Emoji” and select “Enable”. Use a keyboard shortcut (such as the one available to Firefox users: Ctrl + F and type in “Extra Emoji”) to rapidly locate the feature. Click “Save Changes” (at the bottom of the screen) and you’re done.
Keep in mind that you have to enable “Rich formatting” in order to use emoticons when composing outgoing messages in Gmail.
Software Engineer with Google, Darren Lewis, comments: “For a short period of time after launching emoticons for mail, we believed we had successfully captured the entirety of human expression in 19 faces, important representatives of the animal kingdom, emoticons for both love and heartbreak, and, well, a pile of [poo]. But soon a growing feeling of dread overcame the group. How could we have included a [pig] but not a cat? What if I want wine rather than [beer]? And thus was born a new Labs feature: extra emoji, the colorfully animated brainchild of our team in Japan.”
In order to enable the “Extra Emoji” Labs feature, follow these simple steps:
Follow these 3 simple steps in order to activate the new feature provided by Google Labs:
Step 1 – Go to Gmail and login to your account. If you do not have one, perhaps this would be the best time to sign up (it’s free and you get tons of features to play with). If you already have a Google account and you are logged in, access Labs by simply clicking here.
Step 2 – In the top right corner of the screen, right next to your user name you should be able to see “Settings”; click it. Now locate “Labs” and click it as well.
Step 3 – Locate “Extra Emoji” and select “Enable”. Use a keyboard shortcut (such as the one available to Firefox users: Ctrl + F and type in “Extra Emoji”) to rapidly locate the feature. Click “Save Changes” (at the bottom of the screen) and you’re done.
Keep in mind that you have to enable “Rich formatting” in order to use emoticons when composing outgoing messages in Gmail.
