Hipchat Adds Custom Emoticons… For A Price

Hipchat, the group chat service we use internally, has just added DIY emoticons – with a catch. If you’re not familiar with them, Hipchat’s emoticons are quite fun. They have most of the major memes as well as famous faces (try (arrington)). Now, however, you can add your own famous faces. Our favorites are (jobs) and (gates) as well as (yuno) and (lol). Try them.

In a clever bit of viral marketing, the site allows you to refer friends and you get four emoticons for each paid referral. We were able to get a few so far, adding Matt Burns and myself to the pantheon of 25 pixel by 25 pixel icons available to us during our daily bull sessions.

The emoticons are only visible for your group, so there is little if any duplication.

Hipchat was co-founded by Pete Curley and most recently added iPad and iPhone apps in an effort to beat competitors like Campfire.