How I Use Blackberry AutoText To Add Smileys,Emoticons To SMS Messages and BBM Chat

You've bought a Blackberry phone; chat with some friends on BBM; noticed some smileys, fancy characters, flags etc in their messages and wondering how they managed to do all that? Well, there is no magic in it. You can use the "sym" button on your BB keypad, the Fancy characters app for BB or create custom BB AutoText. Today, I am sharing with you how to use Autotext on Blackberry phones.


So, What is Blackberry Autotext?

RIM designed BB AutoText so you can easily replace specific text that you type with preloaded AutoText entries. If you type text that can be replaced with an AutoText entry while chatting or when composing an SMS message on your BB, the text changes after you press the Space key.

Your BlackBerry device has built-in AutoText entries that correct common mistakes. For example, AutoText changes "hte" to "the". You can create AutoText entries for your common typing mistakes or for abbreviations. For example, you might create an AutoText entry that replaces "brb" with "be right back". More so, you can set up AutoTexts to automatically insert emoticons in BBM chat and SMS messages.

How Do I Use Autotext to Add Emoticons to BB Chats and SMS Messages?

For you to replace a text with an emoticon, you must have the emoticon handy. You can easily copy smileys, emoticons from chats. Whenever I see a combination of characters or a lovely emoticon, I copy and use it in setting up an AutoText entry.




So, let's assume the love emoticon above appears when chatting with a friend via BB Messenger and you decide to use it in setting up an AutoText. If you follow the steps below carefully, you can easily set it up so that anytime you type "love" in chats or SMS messages, the love emotion will automatically appear.

STEPS

==> Copy the love emoticon from the BBM chat message

==> In the BBM chat box, tap the menu button and select "edit autotext"

==> Press the menu button again and click NEW

==> Type "love" in the space below "Replace" as seen in the picture below

==> Scroll to the space below the "with" and click the menu button

==> Select "Paste" to paste the love emoticon you copied earlier

==> Click the menu button again and click SAVE.

That's all.

Go back to chat, type "love" and tap the space key. After you insert the space it will change the "love" to the love emoticon.

Cool..right?

Now, I believe if you see any smiley or some lovely combination of characters while chatting with your friend via BB Messenger, you can now copy it and use it to set up an AutoText.

There will be some instances you might not want those Emoticon AutoTexts to appear in your messages for example, when texting your boss or when sending an official text message. Well, you can easily disable it.

In my future posts, I will share with you how to disable BB autotexts, how to increase your typing speed with BB autotext, and some cool collection of autotexts you can use on your Blackberry. For you not to miss the tutorials, subscribe to my blog here NOW!.

Are you already using AutoText?  Do you have a favorite shortcut for your BlackBerry smartphone? Do you have some collections of emoticons, autotexts you will like to share?  Please, let me hear from you.

Cheers!

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