Skype’s Raison d’être was always to provide the best free video and voice calls across all of its assets and has done rather well over the last few years in maintaining a reasonable level of call quality across a very demanding and expectant space.
Shift of direction
However, as time moves on so does technology and Skype has understood that the rise and rise of the smartphone mobile device has lead to a shift in the way the messaging service is being used by consumers.
Once the province of the video call, Skype’s main experience has now shifted towards text messaging as more and more people use the Skype app on their smart phone on the go.
The new design and update which was released last week face-lifts the messaging section of the platform with rounded avatar icons of contacts mirroring the same user interface adopted by the new Windows phone app.
This of course is no coincidence since Microsoft bought out Skype in 2011.
New features
Additional features included in the update allow users to video call and text message at the same time via a side-by-side window as well as being able to share photos and documents on the fly too without the need to leave the running application.
The new design is ultimately geared towards future compatibility with Microsoft’s newest operating system Windows 10 which will be released next year. Skype’s new presentation and look will fall neatly in line with Microsoft’s new platform and will appear smart and clean on desktop screens.
You can read more about Windows 10 in our previous post we’ve published a few weeks back.
Moving forward
Ever since Skype bought MSN the expectation was that Skype and now Microsoft would fill the void left by its recent acquisition and until up to now it has not really delivered the same messaging service loyal MSN users craved, and there was a lot.
With this new update Skype hope to alleviate this issue although how long this will take is anyone’s guess.
Even so, with the smartphone market ever expanding Skype and Microsoft are positioned strongly for future platform up-scaling.
As ever we’ll keep you up to date with all developments and goings on with Skype and don’t forget to join in on the conversation as well as follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with all our developments and breaking news!
