16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: (d) in response to accepting a selection of one of the custom character(s) that is/are displayed via the user interface of the client device, displaying, via the user interface of the client device, a larger and higher resolution version of the selected custom character.
10. A method for receiving and displaying messages including both standard and custom characters, the method comprising: (a) a client device receiving message data from a second client device, wherein the message data includes one or more standard characters, one or more unique custom character references, and a tag word associated with each of the unique custom character reference(s), each of the standard character(s) is included within a Unicode Standard, and each of the unique custom character references is associated with a corresponding custom character that is not included within the Unicode Standard; (b) the client device obtaining, for each of the unique custom character reference(s) included in the received message data, image data for the custom character associated with the unique custom character reference, wherein the client device obtaining the image data for the custom character(s) associated with the unique custom character reference(s) comprises: (b.1) the client device determining, for each unique custom character reference of the one or more unique custom character references the is/are received by the client device from the second client device, whether image data associated with the unique custom character reference is stored in a local data store of the client device; (b.2) for each unique custom character reference for which the client device determines that the image data associated therewith is stored in the local data store of the client device, the client device obtaining that image data associated therewith from the local data store of the client device without the client device issuing a remote query for the image data associated therewith to a remote server; (b.3) for each unique custom character reference for which the client device determines that the image data associated therewith is not stored in the local data store of the client device, the client device issuing a remote query for the image data associated therewith to a remote server and receiving the image data associated therewith from the remote server; and (b.4) the client device saving in the local data store thereof the image data received in response to issuing the remote query therefor to the remote server, so that the saved image data is thereafter available to the client device at a later time without the client device needing to issue another remote query therefor to the remote server; wherein the client device obtaining the image data for the custom character(s) associated with the unique custom character reference(s) is performing without the client device receiving the image data associated with the custom character(s) from the second client device; and (c) displaying, via a user interface of the client device, the one or more standard characters received from the second client device and the one or more custom characters that is/are associated with the one or more unique custom character references included in the received message data.