Skype teamed up with the legendary British musician on a set of 10 animated cartoon “Mojis” that are designed to help its users express love in their instant message conversations. After all nothing says love quite like a banana seductively peeling itself to some porn-y clavinet music. It’s part of the communication app’s push to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The Mojis are a set of short, lighthearted animations set to music that McCartney composed just for the occasion. They’re quick accents that users can drop into their conversations, alongside other short clips. Microsoft Group Product Manager Stephen Abrahams said users have sent 500 million of the short clips since Mojis were introduced in September.
Collaborating with Paul McCartney is part of what Skype hopes is a bright future of collaborating with musicians on Mojis. The company built all of the animations, and then handed them off to the pop icon to add music and create the final product. According to Abrahams, it was a successful collaboration, and he hopes that McCartney will be available to work on more Mojis in the future.
“As you can imagine, he’s a pretty busy guy,” Abrahams said. "But we both had such a great time, I can’t imagine that discussion not happening."
Those folks without a Valentine on Sunday don’t need to worry — Abrahams said that the Mojis will be sticking around after the holiday so Skype users can show their love at another time.