Onto the smileys....yes Hello has smileys (or emoticons etc). Unlike the other messenger progams you maybe using which inserts the smileys / emoticons directly into your text chat Hello takes a different approach with key combinations setting off smileys in your photo sharing window and like Hello's IM windows their smileys are HUGE!

Also unlike Yahoo! Messenger, Hello's smileys/graphics aren't stored on your computer (ditto for MSN Messenger) so locating them, what they are and what you have to do to generate them requires a bit of plonking (enter your favourite Hex Editor) which will reveal just a few of the combinations you can use, some of which are listed below....

lol	>:)   or     ^:) note: one >:) or ^:) sends both smileys
:O	:P   or     :p note: one :p or :P sends two smileys
:|	:)    or   :-)    or   =)
;)	:(    or   :-(   or     ;(   or     =(
heart       love       xo
hearts sends 4 hearts

and you can quite easily generate a whole stream by entering multiple combinations eg if you copy and paste...

:O :P :p ;) heart love xo hearts :( :-( ;( =( >:) ^:) :| :) :-) =)

you'll end up something similar to the graphic to the right. Ditto for multiple LOL!'s (or lol or a combination of LOL! LOL lol lol!), don't get too carried away with this feature though as for those of us on a dialup it can be a right royal PITA, I imagine for those with broadband access it can be also, as a constant stream of images (once the novelty has worn off ;) is rather annoying especially when you take it consideration the fact that it appears is supports around 60,000 characters :\
Listed above are only a few of the variations available, if you're happy to have a plonk around you find some other combinations/variations also work like LOL!     LOL     lol     lol!     l     :o     HEART     HEARTS     XO     LOVE so if you're up for a plonk.. then happy plonking :)
A smiley quirk is that Hello can't tell the difference between love and glove, foxglove, gloves, clove, clover, truelover or heart and lionheart, sweetheart, sweethearts etc so any word containing any of the trigger words above will set if the associated smiley.. kinda cool if you're up for a surprise every now and then :)

back to the hex editor, if you poke around a bit more you'll also dig up abbreviations which generate (random) selections of the text expanded, which is ok so long as you don't mind your ty being turned into Thank you or Thanks! or your h being thrown out as Howdy! or Hello! or Hi! or Greetings! etc, personally I'm not sure I like this but then I am a bit of a control freak *blush* so it maybe something I get used to in time... that aside, if you use any of the following abbreviations you'll end up with expanded text... (keep in mind that is my username ;)

md generates Mos Def! / Most Definitely which will show as either...	np generates No Problem which will show as either...
brb generates Be back in a minute / Be right back which will show as either...	l generates lol (and LOL graphic) which will show as either... and also
bfn generates Bye For Now which will show as...	h generates Howdy! / Hello! / Hi! / Greetings! which will show as either...
ty generates Thank you / Thanks! which will show as...	n generates No / Nope which will show as either...
c generates Cool! / Awesome! which will show as either...	y generates Yes / Yep which will show as either...
b generates See Ya! / Bye which will show as either...	k generates ok / okay which will show as either...