Microsoft bought Skype nearly six years ago for $8.5 billion, and as regular users at Play, we felt like the service hasn’t improved much and somewhat fell behind all the other messaging apps.
Described as “the next generation of Skype,” the new design focuses on fast messaging. Skype is well known in business to business sector but failed to become dominant in the consumer market. Which is a competitive space with the likes of iMessage, Facetime, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and Snapchat. Not forgetting Slack, which many companies have migrated to.
The redesigned interface includes three sections in a conversation: find, chat, and capture. It’s a lot more fluid and colourful but our biggest fear is that it’s bulky with all the new add-on features. The last thing we need is an app that drains more power.
Personally, I doubt we’ll be replacing WhatsApp or Snapchat for Skype. Especially for messaging our friends and family but it’s exciting to see the redesign. The new Skype will be available on Android first (today in USA) and should hit iOS, Windows and Mac in a month’s time.
