On Tuesday Skype presented the mojis, a new version of the old emoji, which have the purpose of making blunt conversations over the internet much more exciting and entertaining.
The app’s regular emojis started becoming outdated and could not express real life emotions that well, admitted the Skype team. That is the main reason why Skype had to think of an innovative, never before used method that could change the current situation.
The team picked the most hilarious moments from popular films and TV shows and turned them into animated mojis.
The mojis are very similar to gifs, but, in addition to that, they also have sound and can portray accurate emotions from happiness, to extreme awkwardness like no other emoji has done before.
Mojis work in a pretty simple way: Skype users choose the moji that they want and than pull it straight into their chat window. On smartphones, once you tap the moji it will be sent to the person you are having a conversation with. Previewing the mojis before sending them is another option that Skype users will have.
In order for the Skype team to be able to use these mojis, they had to sign contracts with the broadcasters, film studios, or individual film producers. BBC and Universal Studios are only two examples.
So far, the moji collection from Skype includes clips from films such as Despicable Me, Jurassic Park, The Muppet Show, Bridesmaids, etc. As of late Skype asked for permission from Disney Pixar to include mojis from the new animated film called Inside Out. Although the companies gave them permission to use characters like Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and so on, the condition was for Skype to only use the mojis for a three month period of time, announced the team on Skype’s blog.
As Skype continues to grow its moji database, it will have to close many more deals with other studios around the world in order to be allowed to use specific clips from films, or specific characters as new mojis. The collection of mojis will be updated whenever there is a new mojis that is added to the database.
The new Skype feature will be available on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac OS.
