Skype users in India will now be able to send and receive short clips of popular Bollywood movies which it calls ‘Mojis’ via chat. The company has announced that it has partnered with Yash Raj Films and Eros Now to develop custom Mojis for users in India.
Gurdeep Singh Pall, Skype Corporate Vice President said, “Sometimes words are not enough, a popular film dialogue often fills in. Using Bollywood specific Mojis, Skype users can now express themselves better using the short clips from popular movies and TV shows like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Ra one, Dhoom 2 and 3, Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Devdas.” He also said that there are over 100 Mojis that are available and new ones will continue to be added on the app. He added that the company was also looking at including several features that will allow users to send custom Mojis via instant chat.
The company also emphasised the importance of India as a market and said that the company wants to tap into the extremely active and vibrant movie culture in the country. The Bollywood Mojis and emoticons will be available in the features tab of the emoticon picker. It will be available for Windows desktop, Mac, iOS, Android and Skype for Web.
Microsoft is also testing a Skype voice calling app called Dialer, which will be an India centric calling app. It is expected to be a “lite” version of Skype that is designed to operate smoothly on slow and unreliable networks. The app may launch in December.
Last year, Microsoft announced the end of its calling facility from its Skype app to mobiles and landlines within India. While Microsoft didn’t disclose a reason behind the move, it is believed to be because of the pressure exerted by the telecom operators over revenue loss to Over-The-Top (OTT) players like Skype. The telecoms has said that that OTT players were making profits using their networks and not sharing revenues. Earlier this year, WhatsApp introduced a voice calling feature what would allow WhatsApp users to make and receive calls to other WhatsApp users.
Source: IANS