Emoticons are quite popular on Facebook.

Earlier this year, Facebook introduced new emoticons to allow users to express themselves better. The new tmoticons included “love” (heart symbol), “amuses me” (funny face), “Astonish Me” (face of astonishment), “I’m sad” (sad face) and “me angry” (very annoying face).

A recent patent application indicates that Facebook might allow users to replace typed emoticons with user photos. For example, a smiley emoticon may be replaced by a photo of the user smiling.

The user first needs to store a predefined mapping of emoticons to various images uploaded on Facebook. Thereafter, when the user types in an emoticon sign, Facebook will automatically replace it by corresponding user photo.

This will certainly make Facebook experience more interesting and personal.

US20160219006