Online chatting has become a day-to-day necessity, and messaging software is available for this purpose. While chatting, a list of contacts is maintained, each one represented by an icon. These icons are commonly known as buddy icons, especially in the context of AOL messaging. The word buddy is commonly used to refer to friends, and buddy icons are used to represent contacts or buddies in chat rooms.

Buddy icons are small pictures that are placed next to names of contacts in a messenger and keep appearing to show who is chatting. They act as identities of people in a buddy list. Default icons can be used as provided by different messengers, new ones can be downloaded or unique ones can be created. Some people also like to display their personal photographs as their icon. The buddy icons and names remain dim if availability status is offline. Contacts can be communicated instantly only if they are online, otherwise they receive messages when they come online later. A percentage symbol also appears to indicate that a buddy has been warned by others for sending unpleasant messages.

Buddy icons need to be compact and are very small in size, usually 48 x 48 pixels. They are available in easily compressible file formats like JPEG or BMP. Buddy icons are available in both still and animated forms. Creating a static icon is an easier process than an animated buddy icon. There are free software packages available to make simple icons. However, to do complex ones like moving cartoons or ones that require transformation, advanced software is much more convenient and is usually available only on payment. Advanced software packages are especially useful if the user is interested in creating many buddy icons and plans to make money by selling them.

Buddy icons are also used cleverly by advertisers. People download new and interesting icons meant to popularize a product or film. When in use, many people get to know about it automatically. One may be tempted to download or use an existing image for a buddy icon, but it may not always be an easy process. Sometimes it is very difficult to crop and size down an image to required dimensions. One of the easiest ways is to visit the messenger official website and download icons from there.

The choice of buddy icon is important, as it reflects a persons personality, interests and identity. However, unlike a name, buddy icons can be changed anytime.