The company has decided to delete it because it was offensive

Apr 28, 2014 08:34 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has quietly removed a number of emoticons from Skype because they could be considered offensive by some users, although it appears that they were among the most popular smiley faces on the app.

The company hasn't publicly announced the change, but in a short post on the Skype forums, a community manager confirmed the removal of some emoticons because they could be considered offensive.

“These hidden emoticons indeed got removed with 6.14 because of them or their shortcodes having the potential to offend some users. Here's some feedback from users wanting it back, so feel free to show your support there if you are passionate about them,” the Skype community manager wrote, while also including a link to another thread where users are calling for Microsoft to bring back the emoticons.

But just like TechCrunch in reporting today, new versions of Skype come with some other emoticons, including some limited-editions smileys celebrating Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Microsoft itself admitted that users are very interested in emoticons, so it's working to improve this particular feature in future versions of Skype. The new ones are hidden in the app, but you still find them if you know where to look.

“Five new, limited edition emoticons, including Captain America, the mysterious Winter Soldier, Nick Fury and Black Widow are now available for your IM chats. While you can find most emoticons in our gallery, adopting the spy sensibilities of SHIELD and Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, these emoticons are ‘hiding’ within Skype,” Microsoft said last month.

However, users are disappointed with Microsoft's decision to remove these emoticons and call for the company to bring them back in the coming updates.

“Why even remove those emoticons? They were great. I can see that Skype is getting worse and worse in quality,” one user wrote. “For those who get offended by a little cartoon smiley face shooting a bird... perhaps we could add parental controls to hide them from both the young & the older but maturationally challenged users :cool:,” another one added.

The feature request is still under consideration right now, but don't be too surprised if the company refuses to implement these emoticons back in Skype. Some other smiley faces could still be introduced in the next few Skype updates, especially because Microsoft is working to improve the application and fix some of the features that have until now led to a number of complaints from its users.