This study has investigated the pragmatic role of emoticons in Facebook chats. Data has been collected from Facebook profile pages after taking permission from their owners. A qualitative analysis has been done. Speech act theory has been used in order to interpret the data. The study shows that emoticons are used as emotion markers by the speakers. In addition, emoticons help to create rapport and social intimacy as nonverbal cues do in the real world. Although sometimes emoticons may create ambiguity, mostly they reduce ambiguity from sarcastic and ironic messages. This study is small and therefore research needs to be done in order to find out the whole pragmatic range of emoticons; for example, interviews can be carried out to find out speakers' reasons for using emoticons and how they help for better interpretation.