In a world where Twitter and Snapchat are becoming two of the biggest social mediums, it can make one wonder why people seem to be so fond of restrictions and timers. Microsoft has clocked onto this idea too, and has their own answer with a new version of Skype.

Skype Qik will launch on mobiles (iOS, Android and Windows Phone) later this year and will offer a new approach to how people send video calls. Similar to Snapchat, one person will send a clip of a video over to receivers.

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Videos will be limited to 42 seconds, vastly shorter than the normal Skype chat time. This will make it mroe difficult to send all information over in one video clip, but is intended for users who want to send short clips of events or information quickly.

This is Skype's first major move into mobile phones - the original Skype app got a lukewarm response on almost every device and continues to be used mostly on computers. Skype Qik has an interface and idea that fits with the mobile demographic and should do better than its predecessor.

Approximately 300 million people use Skype, around half as much as WhatsApp. Considering Microsoft paid $8.5 million for it in 2011, it shouldn't be this far behind. Most of this has to do with the poor showing on mobile, but Skype Qik could close the gap.

Skype Qik is all for short videos, with a restriction of 5MB per video, lower than a JPEG image. This might bring up a ton of errors if there is a lot of movement on a 42 second video, although Microsoft's compressions tactics are still unknown. The new video call messaging service will be available later this year, for free. 

TagsSkype Qik, Skype, messaging services, video message app