Skype has launched a new video messaging app dubbed Skype Qik. The app has been rolled out simultaneously on all messaging platforms and users can download it from the Google Play, Apple’s App Store, and the Windows Phone Store for free.
Skype's Qik allows people to sign up using their phone numbers similar to Facebook's WhatsApp and Rakuten's Viber. Users can share videos limited to 42 seconds and they automatically disappear after two weeks. The app has some interesting features that allow users to toggle between both the front and back cameras while recording. To record users have to simply press the pink record button to record and then press that same button again to send. However users don't get an option to review the videos, but they can delete the video anytime they want.
Qik has been launched as a companion app to Skype's video and audio conferencing software, which already has more than 300 million users. The mobile-only Skype Qik app is an important move by Microsoft which is trying to tap into the mobile market. Read: Facebook launches Snapchat-clone Slingshot with "disappearing" messages
Skype describes Qik as “a totally effortless way to capture the moment, share laughs, and chat with groups of friends by turning short videos into conversations. The goal is to make video chats as spontaneous as messaging but as intimate as calling.”
Piero Sierra, director at mobile for Skype stated in an interview, "Skype Qik is a lightweight, spontaneous, mobile-first video messaging app."
Also Read: Snapchat and WhatsApp rule the roost for photo sharing
Source: Skype