Term for Internet or Texting Acronyms, e.g. LOL, IMHO, M8

Question

What are the acronym, internet words like lol, brb, imho, etc., called? Is there such a term beyond acronym? I was wanting to tell someone that someone else was not familiar with the meme/internet jargon/acronym 'M8' (or mate), but couldn't think of a reasonable word to use.

So, is there a term that would define these terms for how they are different than other, regular english 'SMS text'. Moreover, we find these terms more and more in the wild and not necessarily even on electronic devices, like on t-shirts or even spoken.

If I e-mail the message, "I'll be leaving the office at 10, but then I'll brb." What would I call the 'brb' part of the message, apart from the rest? "He e-mailed his boss a message saying 'He'd be right back', but he decided using an [internet jargon] was acceptable."

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Update 02/01/2018

Although I have accepted an answer for now, I think it is inadequate, and that a word will eventually be coined to define these text terms. Until then...

Answer 1

Generally, it's called "chat speak" or "text speak" as it originated in shorthand used when writing text messages and in chat rooms on the internet.

The main Wikipedia article calls it SMS language but I've never heard that term before.

SMS language or textese (also known as txt-speak, txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, texting language, txt lingo, SMSish, txtslang, txt talk) is a term for the abbreviations and slang commonly used with mobile phone text messaging, but sometimes used with other Internet-based communication such as email and instant messaging.

The Wikipedia article includes lists of examples that include the ones you've listed in your question.

Another source of information, NetLingo.com broadens the terms for this to include:

a.k.a. Internet acronyms, text message jargon, abbreviations, initialisms, cyberslang, leetspeak, SMS code, textese

Note that leetspeak (or just leet) is generally considered a separate entity from chat/text speak, as it uses more numerals and special suffixes and also encompasses things like ASCII art.

LOL, notably, has its own Wikipedia article where it is defined as being internet slang:

LOL or lol, an acronym for laugh(ing) out loud, or lots of laughs, is a popular element of Internet slang. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication and even face-to-face communication. It is one of many initialisms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including initialisms for more emphatic expressions of laughter such as LMAO ("laugh(ing) my ass off") and ROFL (or its older form ROTFL; "roll(ing) on the floor laughing"). Other unrelated expansions include the now mostly obsolete "lots of luck" or "lots of love" used in letter-writing.

Answer 2

I came across this thread because, I too wanted to know the name for this category of terms. I can't believe there isn't one yet; at least not any that I would want to be stuck with for the rest of eternity.

So let's come up with a term for this type of abbreviated text.

I propose "TLA". This stands for "Three Letter Acronyms" of course.

Before a bunch of people reply with a lot of irrelevant points like, "Wait! TLA like "ROFLMAO" has more than three letters!", I would counter with, "Who cares. it doesn't have to make sense. It just has to sound better than "SMS speak" (which, BTW, we can all agree is just terrible, right?)

But if that argument falls flat, then I was mistaken, WHat I meant to say is the TLA stands for "Text Letter Acronyms"

If that doesn't work, then come up with something better and post it here

(aside: I saw John's comment to Catija:

@Catija, I have a real gut feeling that we will have a single word someday for these terms. Until then yours is probably the best that we have. Accepting this. Thanks. – John Jul 22 '16 at 16:13

after I posted. I reread Catija's post, however, and wasn't really able to discern what term was being accepted. Perhaps Catija or John could clarify what term they are proposing. Sorry if I stepped on any toes.