diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/backbone/plugins/emoticons.js.coffee b/app/assets/javascripts/backbone/plugins/emoticons.js.coffee
index fcbf3e83..8c9c872b 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/backbone/plugins/emoticons.js.coffee
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/backbone/plugins/emoticons.js.coffee
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 class Kandan.Plugins.Emoticons
 
   @options:
-    regex: /\([a-zA-Z]+\)|(:[a-z]+:)|(^|\s)+([:|=][\)|\(|P|p])($|\s)/g
+    regex: /\([a-zA-Z]+\)|(:[\w\-+]+:)|(^|\s)+([:|=][\)|\(|P|p])($|\s)/g
     template: _.template '''
       <img class="emoticon-embed <%= css %>" src="/assets/emoticons/<%= src %>" title="<%= title %>" />
     '''
@@ -910,12 +910,9 @@ class Kandan.Plugins.Emoticons
       matches = message.content.match(@options.regex)
       for match in _.unique(matches)
         match = match.trim();
-        emoticon    = @emoticons[match]
+        emoticon = @emoticons[match]
         
         if emoticon
-            needle = match.replace('(', '\\(').replace(')', '\\)')
-            search = new RegExp(needle, 'g')
-            replacement = @options.template(emoticon)
-            message.content = message.content.replace(search, replacement) 
+            message.content = message.content.replace(match, @options.template(emoticon)) 
 
       return Kandan.Helpers.Activities.buildFromMessageTemplate(message)