Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a major overhaul to its Skype service, including a “ground up” rebuild of Skype’s various apps and a number of new features designed to bolster the social networking and sharing aspects of the service.
“New Skype” was first introduced on Android but today is rolling out for iOS as a free update in the App Store. While the basic Skype functions are still there, longtime users of the app will notice a drastically different interface focused more on sharing, with Apple Messages-like animated chat sessions, color customizations, and the ability to capture photos and videos of “highlights” that your friends and contacts will see.
All of these changes are part of Microsoft’s desperate attempt to claw millennial users away from services like Snapchat, and we just hope that the company put as much effort into video call stability and performance as it did into chat “reactions.”
Still, you’ll see the new Skype update on your iPhone or iPad soon if you have automatic updates enabled, and you can expect these features and design elements to continue rolling out to other Skype-compatible platforms like macOS and Windows in the near future.
Oh ****.
My 88 year old mother Skypes with us every week. She doesn’t do well with computers. When I say that I mean we set up her old Win laptop with one icon “SKYPE” in the middle of the screen. She knows to click on that and it opens. Things occasionally pop up on the screen and she agrees so they go away. Fortunately she doesn’t do e-mail or surf, or anything so they are just update announcements. If the update takes a while she goes away and comes back later. The ancient Toshiba laptop is for Skype and nothing else. She opens Skype, clicks on one of our names and we appear. My brother brought her an iPad earlier this yearand she was totally confused. Yes, she couldn’t figure out and iPad. So they’re changing the layout and controls on Skype? We may never hear from her again.