iChat Icon   Indicating your mood, smiling, and reacting in a chat

A "smiley," or emoticon, is common instant message shorthand used to indicate how you feel or to show a reaction to someone's message.

When you're typing a message, choose Edit > Insert Smiley and select an entry, or choose the smiley from the pop-up menu next to the text field. It appears in your outgoing message.

You can also type a smiley using your keyboard, such as ":-)" and iChat AV inserts a corresponding graphic.

When others receive your message, they may see the graphic you chose, a different version of the graphic, or a textual representation, depending on what kind of instant message application they are using.