Skype goes “Bollywood” with Mojis
Skype, the video calling platform has introduced Bollywood based ‘talking pictures’ named Mojis.
The new interactive videos or talking pictures, named Mojis by Skype, are the first of a kind very small clips of video (both Bollywood and Hollywood) that the company claims will revolutionize chat platforms.
If you haven’t tried Mojis yet, they are short clips from your favorite movies and TV shows that you can put directly into a Skype chat when words just aren’t enough.
In addition to Bollywood Mojis, Skype has created a series of new emoticons highlighting some of the food, gestures, holidays and daily expressions honoring the Indian culture Bollywood stems from. Both Bollywood Mojis and emoticons will be available worldwide, in the featured tab of the emoticon picker. Don’t see Mojis in your chat screen? Make sure you’re on the latest app on Windows desktop, Mac, iOS, Android, or Skype for Web.
For the new feature, Skype has partnered with Indian studios Yash Raj Films and Eros Now, the on-demand entertainment platform of Eros International, to develop custom Mojis for Skype users.
“We identified that these clips might be heavy on data usage for users and hence we have cached them on the app itself reducing the need for the user to download them every time while sending them over the platform,” – said Gurdeep Pall, corporate vice president, Skype.
The company also emphasized the importance of India as a market.
“Our goal is to provide the best possible messaging experience on Skype, and tapping into India’s extremely active and vibrant film culture is a perfect way to do that,” Pall said alluding that Skype has 300 million subscribers globally.
“The app has seen at least 500 million downloads from the Google Play Store,” Pall added.
Currently, India is home to a lot of chat or instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp, hike messenger and Viber who have a user base of 900 million, 70 million and over 40 million.
The new Bollywood Mojis and emoticons will be available in the features tab of the emoticon picker on Skype for Windows desktop, Mac, iOS, Android and Skype for Web.
