--- title: Paul McCartney Launching 'Audio Emoticons' description: These audio emoticons will be available on Skype. canonical: https://time.com/4215938/paul-mccartney-audio-emoji/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-10T19:07:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:29:55.750Z og:title: Paul McCartney Is Launching 'Audio Emoticons' og:description: The musical "mojis" will be available on Skype og:url: https://time.com/4215938/paul-mccartney-audio-emoji/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9aecd5db01cb8e/69887d07428a9e4e7bcd155f/paul-mccartney-audio-emoticons-skype.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Paul McCartney In Concert - Detroit, MI og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul McCartney Is Launching 'Audio Emoticons' twitter:description: The musical "mojis" will be available on Skype twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9aecd5db01cb8e/69887d07428a9e4e7bcd155f/paul-mccartney-audio-emoticons-skype.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul McCartney Is Launching 'Audio Emoticons' by [Eric Renner Brown / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Eric Renner Brown / Entertainment Weekly Feb 10, 2016 7:07 PM UTC  Sir Paul McCartney performs during the U.S. 'Out There' tour at Joe Louis Arena on October 21, 2015 in Detroit, Michigan. Sir Paul McCartney performs during the U.S. 'Out There' tour at Joe Louis Arena on October 21, 2015 in Detroit, Michigan.Scott Legato/Getty Images by [Eric Renner Brown / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Eric Renner Brown / Entertainment Weekly Feb 10, 2016 7:07 PM UTC The Paul McCartney who appeared in grainy, black-and-white footage on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in 1964 could’ve never imagined this. The ex-Beatle [announced](http://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/paul-writes-new-music-for-skype-love-mojis) Wednesday that he had partnered with Skype to create a series of ten animated, love-themed Mojis — which feature exclusive new music by the rocker. “Today’s announcement marks the launch of a new kind of digital expression – the audio emoticon,” a press release explained. “Mojis are short animated clips that you can use during Skype chats when words just aren’t enough.” McCartney also shared his thoughts about the project in a statement. “It turned out to be a great laugh at the same time as challenging because you suddenly realize you’ve got to compress a musical interpretation of an expression into less than five seconds,” he said. “It was like doing a huge crossword puzzle and coming up with all these solutions. And at the same time it was musical so it was great practise for me in the studio.” McCartney recorded the Mojis in Sussex over the course of the week and used instruments including guitars, drums, xylophone, and a Moog synthesizer, the latter of which he chose to “give it a modern flavor.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/10/paul-mccartney-audio-mojis-skype) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4215938/paul-mccartney-audio-emoji/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4215938/paul-mccartney-audio-emoji/"},"headline":"Paul McCartney Is Launching 'Audio Emoticons'","datePublished":"2016-02-10T19:07:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:55.750Z","description":"Use them on Skype when \"words just aren’t enough\"","url":"https://time.com/4215938/paul-mccartney-audio-emoji/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","Music","Paul McCartney","Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9aecd5db01cb8e/69887d07428a9e4e7bcd155f/paul-mccartney-audio-emoticons-skype.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Renner Brown / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9aecd5db01cb8e/69887d07428a9e4e7bcd155f/paul-mccartney-audio-emoticons-skype.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Paul McCartney In Concert - Detroit, MI","caption":"Sir Paul McCartney performs during the U.S. 'Out There' tour at Joe Louis Arena on October 21, 2015 in Detroit, Michigan.","creditText":"Scott Legato/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4215938/paul-mccartney-audio-emoji/","name":"Paul McCartney Is Launching 'Audio Emoticons'"}}]}] ```