:)

:) is Twitch's basic smiling punctuation family. The colon forms the eyes and the closing parenthesis forms the curved mouth when the characters are read sideways, while Twitch renders the expression as one of its standard robot smiles. :-) adds the traditional hyphen nose without changing the reaction.

On September 19, 1982, Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Scott Fahlman proposed :-) as a marker for jokes on the university's electronic bulletin board. The convention spread far beyond that board. On February 3, 2013, Twitch launched Twitch Turbo with a choice between its standard emoticon set and an all-new alternate set, turning familiar keyboard reactions like the smile into a small themed-artwork system rather than a single fixed picture.

Viewers type :) in Twitch chat to use this emote. :-) is the same-family nose variant. The smile fits greetings, friendly approval, a pleasant surprise, a good play, a mild celebration, or any positive moment that calls for a simple reaction rather than a more specific character emote.