Watch out! the audicons are coming

Irish company 2PM Technologies has unveiled a new application that will let users send whimsical noises alongside audible SMS messages.

The noises, which can be attached to any standard text message, have been dubbed audicons, because they are designed to have a similar effect as emoticons, which have been used for years in SMS messages, IM messages and e-mails. Text only smiley faces, such as :-) are typical emoticons.

To attach an audicon to a message, users simply write out a text message and include a special audicon sequence of characters to generate the sound to associate with the message. For example, an SMS reading "Congratulations on winning the big match [cheers]," would include a cheering sound effect.

Additionally, messages that include audicons can be sent to any phone, including fixed-line phones that generally cannot receive SMS messages. This is because the service dumps audicon text messages into users' voicemail boxes in the form of an audio message that includes the audicon.

News source: The Reg