- Skype chat is part of the Skype program, which includes Internet voice and video chat. The program is free, and lets you connect with anyone with an Internet connection running Skype on a computer, smartphone, or tablet computer. You can have multiple chat windows open to chat with different people or add multiple people to one Skype chat to create a group chat. You can also transfer a file through Skype if you drag the file into an open chat window. The file will be transferred to everyone in the text chat.
- Skype chat features more than 70 emoticons, many animated, for use in text chats. Emoticons can be added to text with the emoticon drop-down menu above the text chat window or by typing the code for the emoticon. Some emoticons have multiple text codes that display the emoticon. For example, to display the Waiting emoticon, you can click the emoticon drop-down menu and click it, or you can type “(waiting),” “(forever)” or “(impatience)” in the text chat window.
- Skype also has “hidden” emoticons that are not visible in the emoticon drop-down menu. Some of these emoticons are rude while others are deliberately hidden by the Skype developers to let users of the program find them on their own. For example, the “Smoking” emoticon is not visible in the emoticon drop-down menu but you can display it if you type “(smoking),” “(smoke)” or “(ci)” in the text chat window.
- National flags are another kind of hidden emoticon. The code you type to display a national flag is based on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, or IANA, two-letter country codes. The IANA codes are used for top-level Internet domains assigned to a country. For example, a German domain might be “domain.de”, with “de” as the country code for Germany. To display a German flag in a Skype text chat, type “(flag: DE)” or to display a United States flag, type “(flag: US).”
previous post
next post