Emoticons and group chat have been added to the features for Gmail, but they will roll out slowly to Gmail users.
People running Internet Explorer 6, Google Apps users, and international users will be among the first to sample updated chat functions in Google’s Gmail application.
The new features will be rolled out to those on the latest version of Gmail, itself being made available in a gradual fashion to its users.
People can start a group chat from a regular chat window’s Options menu. Enter the names of people who should be included, and they all join the group chat. Features like archiving and off-the-record chat work in the group as they do in one on one chat, according to the official Gmail blog.
In the bottom right corner of the chat window, Gmail users can select emoticons to use during their chat. The old Gmail smileys are still there, along with two new menus of smileys.
“We’re looking forward to using Gmail’s new modular architecture to bring you more features like these with faster turnaround,” Google’s Sergey Solyanik said in the blog post.