Skype announced today that it has added a highly requested photo sharing feature to its iPhone and iPad apps with a new update.

“The new Photo Share feature will let you send photos you’ve shot on your iPad or iPhone directly to friends or family members via Skype,” says Skype’s Jonathan Watson. “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.”

“We’ve also improved the overall performance of Skype’s mobile apps,” he adds. “We’ve made them less battery hungry when running in the background, so you’ll now be able to answer Skype calls throughout the day when they come in. And, as you’ll be able to keep Skype open, you can respond to or send IMs to friends and colleagues all day long. In addition, we’ve tried to make the app start and contact list load even faster, so you can do all the things you love to do with Skype more quickly.”

The update also comes with an anti-shake video feature, to make video calls a little bit more stable for viewing.

Here’s what the photo sharing feature looks like on the iPhone:

And the iPad: