Emoticon Transmission by SMS

PURPOSE: A method for transmitting and receiving emoticons using the SMS(Short Message Service) is provided so that a terminal, in which a routine to display an emoticon as a combination of ASCII characters doesn't exist, can normally display a text-type emoticon on the screen. CONSTITUTION: A user selects an SMS origination mode, inputs a desired destination phone number, and makes out a short message(S400-S420). At this moment, the user inputs an emoticon if necessary. Then the user sends the short message containing the text-type emoticon to the destination phone number(S430). Receiving the short message(S440), the receiving-side mobile terminal converts the received text-type emoticon into a graphic emoticon if the receiving side mobile terminal has a routine to modify text-type emoticons into graphic emoticons(S450). Then the receiving side mobile terminal displays the short message together with the converted emoticon. However, in case that such a routine doesn't exist, the receiving-side mobile terminal displays the text-type emoticon as it is(S460).