Skype’s Humoticons Put Human Faces on Emoticons–Care to Chat?

If you're into instant messaging, then you probably already know what emoticons are. In case you don't, they're tiny little faces with different expressions on them that you can use while you're chatting with someone.

The fact of the matter is, most means of online communication are pretty impersonal, but that's not going to stop Skype from trying to make people think otherwise either.

As part of their recent campaign to promote video calls, Skype has launched an app called Skype Humoticons that lets users create real-life emoticons by taking a picture or uploading one of them making various weird and funny facial expressions. The humoticons can then be posted on the Humoticon gallery or shared with friends on their Facebook walls.

As part of Skype's new "It's Time for Skype" marketing campaign about putting humanity back into how we communicate with others each and every day, we have pledged to make the web a little more human. 

Just freestyle it and do whatever you want to express the way you're feeling. Because nothing can replace the look on your face.

-- Francie Strong, Director of Global Marketing at Skype

The campaign tries to hit back at two of the largest social networks on the web, Facebook and Twitter, because of how users communicate on both platforms. Skype's ad targeting Twitter reads: "140 characters doesn't equal staying in touch," while the one that takes a swipe at Facebook reads: "Upgrade from a wall post to a first class conversation."

The ironic thing is that Skype is actually using both social networks to spread the word about their Humoticons campaign. The video chat service is using the #timeforskype hashtag to promote itselfon Twitter, while the actual Humoticons app is hosted entirely on Facebook. Go figure.

Article by Hazel Chua
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