Skype for iOS update with Microsoft account support, animated emoticons

Skype has quietly pushed out an update to its applications for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad this morning, bringing these services more in line with their desktop counterparts. Reflecting Skype’s growing integration with its new owners in Redmond, owners of Microsoft accounts can now merge these accounts with Skype to enable users to chat with their full Outlook, Messenger, and Hotmail contact lists. The move is in line with Microsoft’s decision earlier this month to kill off Messenger and move the service’s 100+ million users over to the Skype platform.

The company added a handful of other features to Skype for iOS. Per the version 4.2 release notes, users can now sign up for Skype from directly within the application, and additional emoticons (including animated emoticons for Retina displays) are available when composing an instant message. Users can tap and hold an instant message to edit the message, and contact phone numbers can be saved to your device directly from the dial pad within Skype.

Version 4.2 of Skype for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is available for free on the App Store.

[via The Next Web]