In April this year, Microsoft announced it was retiring their Qik video messaging service, and were merging it with Skype to better enhance user experience. It seems to have finally come to fruition with Microsoft today announcing its new service called Skype Qik: Group Video Chat.
Skype Qik is an mobile-only app that is focused solely on swapping short clips (up to 42 seconds long) with contacts imported from contacts stored on your phone. Skype Qik allows for group messages to be created from these contacts, to quickly and easily allow you to arrange social, or business gatherings using these clips, or a group chat. Within the messages you can embed messages, clips and maps.
All messages vanish after two weeks to help protect your privacy. You can however, pre-record “Qik Fliks” to use when you’re either too busy or just want to reply with your favorite internet meme.
Skype Qik is free to download from Google Play, but it’s also available from the iOS App Store, or Windows Marketplace making for a truly cross-platform service. There’s no web version at this stage with only mobile apps available to connect to the service.
The Skype team have also stated to Engadget, that they are looking at integrating Qik into the existing Skype app, saving the need to have 2 apps on your smartphone. Although at this stage there was no time frame given.
If you want to try Skype Qik: Group Video Chat, you can either head over to the Qik website or click the link below to download it directly from Google Play.
