Microsoft is finally going to make the Skype UI good for the things people use

Enlarge / The new mobile interface, with its buttons along the bottom. (credit: Skype)

In July, Microsoft made the surprising announcement that it was going to add useful new features to Skype: built-in call recording, along with the end-to-end encrypted messaging and NDI API support previously announced. Today, that drive to make Skype a better client for chat and calls continues with a new direction for the development of the user interface that emphasizes these core features.

This change in direction comes after there was vigorous pushback against Microsoft's plans to kill off legacy versions of the Skype client and unify every supported Skype platform on a single client. The new client (known as Skype for Life) is built using Web tech (it's a JavaScript application using the React framework), and it shares core code between the traditional Windows desktop application, the Windows Store application, the macOS and Linux apps, the iOS and Android mobile apps, and even the Web front-ends. With this unified client, Microsoft can add support for things like encrypted messaging without having to implement the same functionality multiple times for the multiple clients.

However, the users of the traditional, legacy Skype desktop application weren't happy with Microsoft's plans to force them to use Skype for Life. While Skype for Life is the only option for the new features, such as encryption and NDI support, it doesn't include certain legacy features, such as the ability to create multiple windows (one per chat) and a range of online statuses. Moreover, Skype for Life included and prioritized features such as Snapchat-like statuses, which haven't really caught on and which pushed the things that people do use Skype for-calling and messaging-into the background.

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