Microsoft has quietly removed a number of emoticons from Skype because they could be considered offensive by some users, although they appear to have been among the most popular smiley faces in chats.
The company has not publicly announced the change, but in a short message posted on the Skype forum, an administrator confirmed the removal of certain emoticons because they could be considered offensive.
These are "hidden" emoticons, that is, emoticons that only appeared if you wrote them with their name, and these were (fubar), (finger), (wtf), (hollest). If the names don't tell you anything, imagine the symbolism of the raised finger and other such nice things. As you can see in the image on the left, the icons for wtf and finger are not displayed to the recipient.
"Indeed, these hidden emoticons were removed with version 6.14 because of their potential to offend some users. Below you will see some comments from users who want them back, and you are free to show your support if you are passionate about them," the administrator on the Skype forum says, while also including a link to another part of the forum, where users are asking Microsoft to bring back the emoticons.
But, as TechCrunch reports, the new versions of Skype come with some other new emoticons, including some limited-edition smileys celebrating Marvel's Captain America.
And because these emoticons are also hidden, you will have to write them and send them to one of your contacts in order to see them. But try them, from the list below
(talktothehand) (idea) (sheep) (cat) (bike) (dog) (captain) (bucky) (blackwidow) (nickfury) (shielddeflect)
Source: secnews.gr
