Today Skype launched an attack on sending photos via Apple’s iMessage, via email or via traditional SMS/MMS with the release of photo sharing for the iPhone and iPad versions of Skype. The key point of the blog post to me is this:

There’s no limit on the size of the file you can send, so you can send photos without reaching email size limits or paying expensive MMS charges.

This is yet another example of Skype seeking to disrupt the traditional telecom industry as an “over-the-top (OTT)” app – and make the user experience that much easier. (And yes, I am fully aware that Skype for Android has had file sharing since December 2011.)

Skype’s blog post doesn’t directly mention Apple’s iMessage, but that’s the reality of what else will be disrupted. Think about it… here is what you have for options inside the built-in “Photos” capability of an iPhone:

You can either email the photo or use the “Message” which goes either through the traditional SMS/MMS route – or via iMessage. This Skype functionality replaces both of those capabilities… although you need to be in the Skype application to use the sharing. Note that for a reason I’ll explain…