Why do my emails show J instead of smileys?

(freedigitalphotos.net) image creator Master isolated images

Have you ever got an email where there was a J in weird places, and you didn't get why? You are not alone. I've had a lot of people ask me about this in the past, and I decided to do a bit of research and experiment, and I finally have a logical explanation for it.

The answer to the big question: If you don't use Microsoft Outlook, but the person who sent you the message wrote using that client, or wrote his/her message in the Word Processor, your email client will not recognize the smileys generated by these programs when the person wrote ':)'. It seems that the reason is that when you insert free smileys in the outlook message, the actual emoticon isn’t graphically embedded in the mail, but the letter J is put there instead. When non-outlook clients or webmail services try to read the message what they see there is the letter 'J' and not the actual smiley that was there in the first place.

My opinion is that Microsoft should stop with this elitist behavior and start using graphic smileys like everyone else. I don't think all other email clients should change their system just because Microsoft wouldn't go with the flow of the ever growing demand for the use of free smileys. Other email services are not obliged to rise to the occasion and make the necessary adjustments, as they actually support more advanced technology than the one putting a letter instead of a graphic image in the text the user is writing.

So, if you are using a client that allows graphic emoticons, you can go and download free emoticons anywhere on the web, and start sharing your feelings in this impersonal communication method, bringing it closer to the way we use non-verbal communication in real life.