Microsoft Updates Skype and Skype Qik Apps With New Features

Microsoft on Thursday announced an update for Skype for Android and iOS, while also announcing an update for its Skype Qik video app with new video effects for the Android, iOS, and Windows Phone platforms.

In Skype 5.3 for Android, Microsoft has made some 'big changes' under the chat section of the app. Users will now see a bubble-style chat layout on Android, similar to what we have seen on the VoIP service's desktop and iOS versions. Besides sending Skype emoticons, Android users will now also be able to send emojis. Bigger, animated emoticons are also being rolling out in the coming weeks. Speech to text is also supported as a part of the update, when connected to Android Auto.

Some of the other improvements made in the Skype 5.3 for Android include no auto-scrolling of chats resulting in easier catching up on an active conversation; changing and viewing of avatars for all the group chats, and re-entering of username and password after signing out. This feature will be helpful for those who use multiple Skype accounts.

On the other hand, Skype 5.12 for iOS will be getting support for 12 new languages in the coming weeks, including Hindi. Other languages supported are Croatian, Slovak, Catalan, Vietnamese, Thai, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Turkish, and Estonian.

As for the Skype Qik 1.5 for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone platform, the video app now comes with eight new video effects. On opening the viewfinder, users can now select an effect to apply on the video. Switching from one effect to another is also possible if users want to add multiple effects in their videos.

While Android and iOS users can tap on the 'magic wand' icon to add effects, Windows Phone users would have to swipe on the viewfinder to cycle through various effects. The updated Skype and Skype Qik apps are available to download from the respective app stores.