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QQ's emoticons (the 70-or-so yellow base set plus a few others) are indeed incredible. Somehow, for every single feeling you want to convey at any time of the d

QQ's emoticons (the 70-or-so yellow base set plus a few others) are indeed incredible. Somehow, for every single feeling you want to convey at any time of the day, you will find one and exactly one matching icon. It's like they created a perfect bijection. And they did this while keeping the icons perfectly readable on small low-resolution screens, and with animation frames you can count on one hand. I have no idea who the original artists are but they have my eternal respect. The drop in emoticon quality was the second worst thing with going back to Skype (which I have to use because everyone else here in the US does).

thaumasiotes 12y ago
I use :/ a lot in wechat because I don't consider any of the faces to match. Also, there are a few faces where the feeling is right but I don't use them because the pink cheeks (and, in one case, eyelashes) make them seem female-only. It'd be nice to have male equivalents.
mdda 12y ago
The reason that the emoticons are so well targeted is not for the users themselves. If someone includes one of the emoticons, it makes machine-identification of sentiment trivial (compared to reading and interpreting the text). (not sure whether this is something that everyone knows already : Perhaps I only just got the news... (Presuming this is actually true, of course))
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  It isn't true; different people assign different meanings to the same emoticon.
justicezyx 12y ago
"Somehow, for every single feeling you want to convey at any time of the day, you will find one and exactly one matching icon." As a long time QQ user, 10 years+. I have to recount my experience that your statement is wrong. Instead the process for me is more akin to that the emoticons shape my way of expressing emotions on QQ. Nowadays, I almost entirely moved to Wechat, and emoticon is seldom used. Instead people interact through moments, photos, voice, video...

thaumasiotes 12y ago

I use :/ a lot in wechat because I don't consider any of the faces to match. Also, there are a few faces where the feeling is right but I don't use them because the pink cheeks (and, in one case, eyelashes) make them seem female-only. It'd be nice to have male equivalents.

mdda 12y ago

The reason that the emoticons are so well targeted is not for the users themselves. If someone includes one of the emoticons, it makes machine-identification of sentiment trivial (compared to reading and interpreting the text). (not sure whether this is something that everyone knows already : Perhaps I only just got the news... (Presuming this is actually true, of course))

thaumasiotes 12y ago
It isn't true; different people assign different meanings to the same emoticon.

justicezyx 12y ago

"Somehow, for every single feeling you want to convey at any time of the day, you will find one and exactly one matching icon." As a long time QQ user, 10 years+. I have to recount my experience that your statement is wrong. Instead the process for me is more akin to that the emoticons shape my way of expressing emotions on QQ. Nowadays, I almost entirely moved to Wechat, and emoticon is seldom used. Instead people interact through moments, photos, voice, video...