Microsoft is going to drastically improve Skype

Over the past few years, only the lazy Skype user has not complained about the VoIP messenger. And it consumes a lot of resources and does not work too fast, plus the program interface was not very convenient, and sometimes even strange (just the places that were copied from Snapchat). Often, users accuse Microsoft of not being able to make work with their own messenger comfortable.

For a long time, the company experimented with the interface and functionality of Skype, without listening to anyone, but it seems that the pleas of users have reached the goal. In July, the corporation announced that it was going to add several useful features to Skype, including a built-in voice recorder, end-to-end encryption and support for the NDI API . Now the company is engaged in the optimization of the interface of Skype, in any case, this was stated by its representatives .

In particular, a redesign of the application without an analogue of "Stories" is presented. In the new versions of the design there will be no strange features, like Highlights and Capture, no buttons for them.
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True, Microsoft still continues to pursue a policy of abandoning versions of Skype for different platforms, while developing a unified messenger. The new client, called Skype for Life, is based on web technologies, including JavaScript and the React framework. The corporation said that due to its unification, it would be able to add such long-awaited features as encrypting messages in user chats for all platforms at once without having to change each client.

However, not all users of traditional Skype were pleased with these plans. Despite the fact that Skype for Life is the only option for a user to get new features mentioned above, many still prefer the traditional version of Skype.

Seeing the rejection of the results of work on the new version of the messenger, the corporation decided to abandon the Snapchat-like statuses that few people liked, and return the application interface to its previous form - that is, how Skype looked before the global updates of the messenger. We cannot speak of a full return to the sources, but there are some positive changes in this regard.



So, the buttons for calling the list of contacts, call and messages are lowered to the bottom of the display, which allows you to get quick access to these two functions. In particular, this is exactly what they did with the mobile version. Now the company promises to return the wall and add other features that users like "true Skype" so liked. Namely, multi-chat windows, plus the ability to control your status and personal data, the old type of search, etc.

The “true Skype” itself will nevertheless continue to be considered by the company as obsolete, and in the end it will be disposed of. However, there is a far non-zero probability that the updated version will be made in many ways similar to the forerunner.

Work on new features also continues. So, end-to-end message encryption has been transferred to the beta version for a stable version of the messenger, and today the company announced the addition of a call recording function.


This is what Skype looked like in 2014.

In principle, the news is good, although it is not entirely clear why the company has not listened to users for so long and continued to push its line, despite the louder criticism. It should be noted that on the way to development the messenger underwent various evolutionary changes, and not always successful ones. They had to refuse and introduce something new, and sometimes it turned out something good.

Now it would be good for Microsoft to speed up the work on the introduction of new old features, as well as on improving the retro-style Skype for Life interface. If you do this quickly, then you can already experiment with the unification of the application. True, I would like Skype to remain Skype, and was not similar to any other applications.