Skype introduced a method to bring brief film segments into its chat service today, adding something akin to GIF support inside of the communications platform.
Dubbed ‘Mojis,’ Skype’s new additions are, in the company’s own words, “short clips from your favorite movies and TV shows” that can be used when talking, via text, to other users of the service. Two TechCrunch staffers updated, and re-downloaded Skype to test the service. Neither build had it included.
According to Microsoft, Mojis will include samples from films like Jurassic Park, and Pitch Perfect. Again, being a monied incumbent has certain advantages.
Skype, long a popular consumer product, has seen its ascendancy undercut by services for the average user like WhatsApp, and Slack for business; Microsoft renamed its Lync corporate product recently to Skype for Business, underscoring how important the latter brand is for the Redmond-based software shop.
Sans the ability to bring you a live demo, I can say that Microsoft created a short video of the Moji tool in action. Mojis lets you play video clips inside of your chat session. Slack, a growing collaboration service, famously supports animated GIFs. This is perhaps Skype’s response to that salvo.
A different idea: Microsoft buys Giphy in a corporate coup involving at least $19, bans Slack from its API, bakes the startup into Skype, and takes over the world.
Perhaps I have been watching too much Narcos.