Skype's universal Windows 10 app desperately needs some love

Hating on Skype is so in vogue in 2017. Whether you're a technology enthusiast, general consumer or both, hating on Skype is something we've all done at some point. Microsoft's decisions have made that too easy.

If you're a user of the Skype app for Windows 10, you'll be annoyed to hear Microsoft just released a brand new preview build of Skype for desktop that introduces a brand new, polished UI and features. Meanwhile, the Skype UWP app is still slow, buggy and ugly in every conceivable way. Microsoft wants developers to adopt UWP, but why should they if Microsoft won't take UWP seriously themselves?

Let it be clear that the preview update today is NOT for the Windows 10 app. It's for the older, desktop Skype that works on Windows 7, Windows 8 and legacy versions of Windows 10. We're seriously not making this up. (opens in new tab)

Messaging Everywhere

I hate Skype for a few reasons, but mostly because it took away my beloved Messaging Everywhere feature from the Messaging app on Windows 10 PC and Mobile, butchering the ability to send SMS messages from your desktop by implementing the feature into the Skype app for Windows 10.

The problem with this move, for me, is that the Skype app for Windows 10 is rubbish in every conceivable way. It took the concept of being able to send SMS messages from your desktop and, to put it lightly, butchered it. Ever since Messaging Everywhere was renamed to SMS Relay and moved into Skype, the feature has sucked majorly. It made me stop using SMS Relay altogether.

Messaging Everywhere was, to me, one of the best things about using a Windows phone and a Windows PC together. It made my devices feel connected, as if they were part of the same platform, and Skype took that away from me. I would've been okay with it if Skype for Windows 10 was good, but it just isn't, and not just because of the SMS Relay stuff. For starters, I think the Skype for Windows 10 UI looks incredibly poor and "pre-release."

A poor UI

At first, I assumed the reasoning for the UI being so poor was because the app was still in preview, but then Microsoft dropped the preview tag, and the app's interface hasn't improved in the slightest. It still looks like it is in an early alpha stage, with odd design choices that make the overall experience seem unfinished. Why is there this big gap at the bottom of chat window above the text input field? Why does the text that categorizes chats by day move and open the top chat when selected? It makes no sense.

What's more, a recent update to the app made things worse. It doesn't have a hamburger menu anymore, which while I understand some people didn't like to begin with, made sense. Now, there's a left hand column that doesn't collapse, it just disappears when the window is small enough, and some areas now show up in fake windows that can't be moved around. What is going on?

I do admit, the light mode version of the Skype app for Windows 10 looks a bit better than the dark mode one, but both overall still look terrible. The Skype app for Windows 10 needs some serious improvements especially considering it's an app that's shipping in Windows 10 today. All 500 million Windows 10 users have this Skype app preinstalled on their device, and it looks awful. The Skype app should look like what's seen in the concept image below by concept designer Michael West:

This is what I expect from an inbuilt app on Windows 10, not the app that we currently have. The design sucks, it's slow to launch on phones, and the unreliable and sluggish SMS Relay all play a factor into why I still use the Skype Win32 program and the Messaging app on Windows phone. I'd rather not use SMS Relay at all than suffer through it with the still unfinished and poorly built Skype for Windows 10.

The Skype app for Windows 10 needs some love from Microsoft. Right now, it's a total mess, and I wouldn't blame anyone if they took one look at it and thought it was some kind of unfinished beta app. Microsoft needs to stop focusing on the dumb Win32 app and start focusing on its UWP version. Bring that same UI to the UWP version, with all the features, and make it stable, and you'll be on the right track.

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.

96 Comments

No, it does not, it must be killed mercilessly.
They need to either kill it, or just GET IT THE HELL RIGHT. I totally cannot rely on it for calls, as my phone NEVER rings when someone is trying to call me on skype. Like 90% of the time it doesn't ring at all. People call me on my mobile number, then I have to switch to the skype app and have it my main task, and THEN i can receive their incoming skype call. It's horrible. Especially considering it worked 100% reliably to receive calls on my Nokia N900 from 2010. I now only use the desktop version because it's actuall usable. But I don't have that choice on my phone.
Satya Nadella doesn't use Windows devices so it's irrelevant to him whether Skype works or not in Windows 10.. as long as it works well on his iPhone Pro.
does new skype preview look and feel any better?
Not particularily, I can't tell any difference between the new Skype Preview and the old Skype UWP
"All 500 million Windows 10 users have this Skype app preinstalled on their device" No, I don't have it installed.
I never said you have it installed, I said it's preinstalled. I wasn't talking about the people that removed it.
You are technically correct but when I installed Windows 10, it was not preinstalled (in fact there was no UWP version of this app at that time) and it was never preinstalled every time I installed updates.
I tried it, then uninstalled it
Neither do I ever since it was stopped and we were directed to install a desktop client!? I ather that it's since changed. I'll just stick with the desktop application. The article writer might be better to just switch especially as it's hated so much.
Some basic things it's missing: You can't swipe to delete; there's no multi-select capability; Cortana doesn't recognize dates/times to allow setting up reminders; trying to share from Photos to Skype in no way interfaces with your Contacts--only Skype's contacts; virtually impossible to add new contacts from phone numbers coming in through SMS (particularly if it's a group message). I could go on, but these are aspects I rely on heavily.
+ show only active users!
Well, I was speaking only about it as an SMS replacement, but you're right on that issue, too.
Yeah, I don't understand why the UWP app doesn't get a little more love either, but it does get some new features every now and then. Also, the removal of the hamburger menu just makes it more like the new Skype Preview, so it seems silly to love one and hate the other. I still, by far, prefer the UWP app for everything. The Messaging Everywhere integration never bothered me and I think it works very well. The app could be faster, but so could every Skype app everywhere, they don't know how to code.
Also, I'd just like to point out that the main reason Skype sucks so much is that there's no viable alternative that does all the same things in all the same places.I love telegram so much more than Skype, but telegram doesn't do video calls. I tried wire but the interface is terrible and the inability to disable emoji autocomplete was absolutely dreadful. I really wanna ditch Skype but I can't and it's likely that many others feel the same way.
I still don't understand why the Windows 10 app still can't do GIF sending.
That's the least of their priorities right now
It's not getting the love. Microsoft is working on React Native for UWP (progress can be tracked here: https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-windows) and once it is stable and supports all features Skype app uses Skype UWP will be replaced by the same app iOS, Android and now Win32 preview has (last one as of today). They've moved Skype to ReactXP for a reason - they want Skype to be exactly the same on all platforms. Single code base, single design, single features set for all users. And thank god. Skype UWP will be replaced by Skype written in ReactXP as soon as it's possible.
And this is the problem with Skype being its own independent business unit. They should be rolled into MS proper and maybe follow a unified vision, which, we all thought, was UWP and Xamarin for XPlatform.
Skype is no longer independent business unit as of nearly a year. This call was made by Microsoft. The reason they've used this technology and not Xamarin is that Skype needs web support as well and there is no point in writing separate web app for it. React Native outputs native UWP app. It's even written using TypeScript, Microsoft's programming language that's superset of JavaScript. And by the way ReactXP - framework which Skype team has created for this app to work with single UI across all platforms, including web, is gaining significant developers interest: https://github.com/Microsoft/reactxp
I could use a mentor like you.
Had no idea, super interesting. I hope it gets here soon
If they plan to get Skype to look and behave like the new on on Android or iOS, then that's a disaster and path to nowhere. That (ReactXP) version is total worthless, piece of sh.. It has the most ugliest, non-intuitive, non-usable UI I have seen lately. UWP app looks gorgeous compared to that peice of crap. Like one of my colleague pragrammers said: it looks like they brought a bunch of kids to summer development camp and let them loose to do whatever they want without any guidance. It's even crapier than UWP version (and it also takes forever to load, amybe even longer than that). So, no, I don't thank God for any such bloatware or poor UX - I just wish someone at MS would finally start to take their fingers out of their asses and start doing some serious work. Otherwise, Skype will soon be another of Microsoft's disasters which nobody knew how they managed to it. And, yes, it is fashionable to blame and spit on Skype but there's a reason for it: it's not reliable, you never know which device will ring and which won't (I have Android, W10M, 2 W10 Pros and not a single time I know which device is ringing and why others aren't), it has very poor sound quality on slower networks (WhatsApp sounds and works so much better for that purpose) - overall, you get what you deserve. And changing colours to pink or whatever else in chat won't change that fact. In fact, it might even make it worse.
> UWP app looks gorgeous compared to that peice of crap. Losing all credibility in a single sentence. You might be setting a speed record here.
Then they really need to hurry up with this React Native thing, I really wanna try this new UI. I just hope it's a little more efficient than the Win32 version. Maybe I«m thinking about it the wrong way, but I don't like opening the task manager and seeing the new Skype Preview use about 3 times more memory than Skype UWP.
Forget that. There is nothing that can be faster/more efficient than Win32. Win32 are direct system calls via C++, all other platforms are wrappers. UWP, ReactNative, etc. Just have a look at Vivaldi browser. It is great browser, but UI is written in ReactJS and compared to native Win32 UI from Opera, it is horrible regarding perfromance and speed.
How fast and efficient does chat app need to be?
@Gregor well, I would just like to use Skype while gaming sometimes and I want that to have the lowest impact possible on the game performance. I feel like Skype is terrible as a Win32 app. Not sure about this Skype preview yet. But Skype UWP feels pretty light, I want it to stay that way.
Well, I use both versions, throughout the whole day, sometimes UWP, sometimes new app on Android (plus i have 3 testing iOS devices to test on). My credibility is fine, don't worry about that. Plus a lot of people from Android and iOS side agree with my POV (search the net to see what they really think of new Skype app). And if you read carefully, I didn't say that UWP is great or anything like that, it's just that the new version is even worse than UWP one.
Interesting observation. Also, don't forget the backend. All of the new clients utilize the new Azure based backend that also reportedly is used by MS Team's - including the UWP app - even if the UI does need a serious makeover!
They can call it Native, but it is another wrapper, another layer to process for CPU/GPU. There is no way that it will be as fast and efficient than Win32.
My point is, who cares? It's a chat app, not Photoshop, 3ds Max or some software that does scientific calculations.
Wow... just wow. I'll try to reproduce the meeting with the program manager: Skype is slow you say? Let's put Javascript under it! That will surely make it better. Instead of having one f@cking C++ Codebase and hooking it into platform specific GUIs (XAML with C++/WinRT on Windows derivates and Xamarin on others, WebAssembly and WebGL for the web...) they create this monstrosity. Is MVVM really that complicated a pattern?
Yes indeed. I guess they will be more aggressive in improving UWP apps once the new mobile device is closer to reality.
what mobile device? :)))) the mythical one with no apps? :)))
Quote: "Microsoft needs to stop focusing on the dumb Win32 app and start focusing on its UWP version." First of all, you sound very mature there... Like something my pre-teen nieces and nephews would say. Secondly, the Win32 App is more efficient than the UWP App on my Notebook. The fan goes crazy running the UWP app. This doesn't happen in the Win32 App unless I'm doing a Voice/Video Call, expectedly. The UWP freezes during video calls routinely. It looks like a-s-s. The entire UI is designed for Touch, which means it wastes a massive amount of screen real estate on 768-1080p screens. It's buggy. I've had it crash numerous times. Messages sometimes seem to send, but never do. Sometimes you don't receive messages. The way it runs in the background is black magic. Sometimes you get notifications, sometimes you don't. Then, randomly you may get 50 notifications at once. It's unusable. UWP makes sense for Mobile Apps. UWP should not be the premier desktop application API/Framework for Windows. T hat should be .NET/WPF and MFC for Performance-sensitive GUI applications. Perhaps if Microsoft wasn't busy reinventing the wheel every 3 years, they'd have a GUI Framework that worked well across form factors (see Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, etc.) instead of the mass of junk they're left with. If Apple ever did an update to macOS that made iPad apps "the future," people would be up in arms, and for good reason. For some reason, Microsoft "fans" have been willing to guinea pig for this experiment. It's been two years. UWP isn't delivering. Time to pivot. I don't want to use Tablet apps on my desktop PC. They don't offer enough, and the UX is not logical on that form factor. I already have a tablet for that stuff.
Sounds like you've made a really good case for why they need to focus on the UWP app more.
Quote: " Perhaps if Microsoft wasn't busy reinventing the wheel every 3 years, they'd have a GUI Framework that worked well across form factors (see Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, etc.) instead of the mass of junk they're left with." Do you know what you talk about? Because I use both and no Cocoa and Cocoa Touch don't have too much in common except for the first part of the name, calling it a single framework... what to say?
A lot of the concepts are reusable across the frameworks, unlike Windows Forma, MFC, and WPF or UWP. You know what I meant. Don't act dumb. And you didn't address the point. Apple made it clear that their platforms are staying different for rational reasons that seem to have escaped Microsoft. Instead of making Windows Mobile better, likely by leveraging .Net, they've wasted a decade. Meanwhile they want developers to use Xamarin... a solution that offers exactly what Microsoft should have developed in 2007-9. UWP apps work well on tablets. They're horrible on desktops and laptops. They don't even perform that well. The only thing worth looking in the Windows Store fore is to see if any desktop apps you care about have been packaged there.
Delusional fanboys down voted you :)) UWP is done without mobile, over! Irrelevant on the desktop! and by the looks, now, it is only another FAILED project that not even MS gives a damn about.
Its been a mess for a long time. Ive ditched the UWP and use Skype for Business. Zune to Groove all over again.
Except Groove is finally starting to actually work somewhat ok. It's still no Zune, but it keeps getting closer. Miles ahead of Xbox music or whatever it was called between Zune and Groove (multiple names I think?)
Skype for Business is is a different trash heap, but garbage nonetheless. Huge battery drain on Win10Mobile.
Yep, the old Lync team dont deserve a single iota of credit, most people i know now use Whatsapp.
What about Telegram?
I would prefer they fix the UWP. Support UWP. Promote UWP. It would be nice. It seems like each team at Microsoft is given the freedom to choose what platform they develop for. While freedom is generally a great thing, when you're building a large seemingly cohesive ecosystem, you generally want some uniformity accross it. Honestly it is $#!+ like this that makes Mac people say "Macs just work." There is a single design language and uniformity to it's entire OS and proprietary apps. Ugh.
Sometimes it will just stop sending messages, gets stuck at "Sending...". Meanwhile the incoming messages are shown instantly. Just a total BS
Honestly I gave up on them 😔 they finished with destroying WP now they are going after Windows on desktop and laptop.... Until nothing left except azure😟
The same could be said for the OneDrive app. It's tragically dated and slow.
I use Skype for Business all the time for work.Like most of Office, it's fantastic (on PC, not on mobile). But consumer Skype is bad. I use it for SMS because I pretty much have to, but that experience is so much worse than what I was used to on BlackBerry 10 before going to WP. A fairly normal thing to want to do is text somebody from your device's contact list. Nah, we're not going to bother allowing you to select that you want to text their mobile number, not their work number (maybe that has changed, haven't tried it recently). I don't necessarily mind the bland UI, but features like that should not be negotiable. Especially considering how many other divisions of Microsoft are doing fantastic work, the Skype team really needs to come up with a plan and stick to it for at least a couple years.
skype for business on Windows 10 Mobile isn't horrible. But it is nearly identical to the desktop version. I think there are some things they could have done to make it better, although I don't believe it is a UWP app yet. But it is slow - thats the only thing I dislike.
I agree with Zac completely. Messaging Everywhere was great, seemless, and perfectly named.
Yep worked a treat, just makes you wonder why the dropped it
Yep, when they got rid of the hamburger menu, I had a really hard time figuring out where the hell the settings were. What a pain in the ass that was. And then when you find it, it pops up dead center in the window instead of popping out from the left. I feel like we have gone back in time.
My biggest issue with the UWP app is the audio settings. I have the settings set to use my headphone jack and USB microphone for call output/input, but every time I make my first call, sound output goes to my default speakers instead. I always have to hang up and make a second call before the settings "take". Most of the other problems I could live with, but that one was enough to make me go back to the ol' reliable desktop app.
Well, that's the problem! With products from a company as huge as MS we should not have to "just live with the issues"! It's shocking how bad their products become every day! Take any good freelance coder, and in 1 month he could come up with a great UWP skype client...so many coders out there that could wipe the floor with any cheap intern MS is working with right now. But hey, good coders come with a cost, a higher cost which is not in Nutella's plan of working cheap and deliver pathetic quality.
I'm not even sure what version I have running where anymore. The whole family have used Skype (and most of the MS suite) for years, but I'm clinging on with fingertips now. The new Android Skype is unusable, literally, unusable. The address book syncing with Skype Win 10 laptop and Skype in outlook.com don't match anymore. We can't even call each other on many occasions and we can't make sense of the menu options between versions anymore. On top of that, Outlook has stopped allowing us to log in with our primary account names, onedrive keeps crashing and edge is so buggy I've given up. I really can't fathom what they are playing at. I get the 'vision', but the reality is, the implementation is shocking. My win 10 PC works fine, but all the other great features I enjoyed in the eco system (windows phone, rooms, placeholders, skype, edge, outlook etc) have been trashed.
I'm sure it will be great in 7 or 8 years or so. Look how far we've come in the 6 years MS has owned it.
Totally agree with you. Messaging Everywhere was awesome. This new Skype is pretty ******. Doesn't sync all SMS between PC and phone. I've unlinked and relinked so many times that I finally gave up.
My personal favourites: Switching from SMS to a Skype message while I'm typing for no apparent reason, causing me to send a Skype message if I don't catch it in time. Sometimes getting royally confused about the message sequence, grouping my messages together, so if I reply to someone, my reply gets bundled with the last thing I said to the person, above the message I was replying to.
I dont care what they do with it now. I gave up on it years ago.
That's why I moved to the Android OS for the same reason many of you will. There isn't any apps and rather than making there apps the best for there platform, there making it better on Android and iOS. I have been a proud Windows Phone Lumia 920, Lumia 1520, Lumia 950XL user & kept thinking there gonna do alot of neat things with Windows....but I keep getting disappointed over and over again. I'm not saying it a bad OS, I am simply saying if you don't show love to your own platform, how can you want others to love it?
JUST USE THE DESKTOP APP DONE!!
As crazy as it sounds, the following are the axioms of the Massively Screwed-up dys-Functional Team: 1. Build for iOS and Android. Don't announce a UWP app. Belatedly come out with an ANNOUNCEMENT that there will be a UWP app in a couple of months. Go on the record as saying that UWP will help iOS and Android developers port their apps to Windows Mobile. 2. Think that if the consumer likes something, then we must have done something wrong. Band, Zune, WMC, WHS, Mobile are all places where the Massively Screwed-up dys-Functional Team has made some great consumer products. They just bail on them. Lots of examples where they don't support consumers of their own products. Of course they are more than willing to support consumers of competitor's products. These are why they a massively screwed-up and dysfunctional team! Doesn't make sense to anyone but themselves.
When a company realizes that they are in danger of becoming irrelevant they start to focus on all the other platforms because as long as any platform is alive MS will remain alive with them. They know the stats. Most people on Desktop spend their time in browsers. Otherwise most people are spending their time on mobile devices. Mobile devices have surpassed pcs/laptops for browser usage. Instead of trying to fix the mistake of the past and somehow magically bringing people over to their own mobile ecosystem. They decided to instead focus first on the other ones and that way they always have backups for if their own ecosystem doesn't pan out. UWP is probably not used enough at this point for them to be worried. That's probably why the desktop app is getting more love.
True, I think they already have moved on from UWP, only windowscentral is still stuck on UWP story.
MS is becoming more pathetic every day, more irrelevant to anyone but fanboys in the consumer space. Their incompetence and ingorance towards their products, sub mediocre quality and support, zero commitment...these are the facts by which Nutella is running the show, waving that MS is making money now...Well for now...Hello to the new IBM.
I still feel yah with them killing off my favorite feature of Messaging Everywhere...hopefully one day they come to their senses and return it properly.
The latest update for Skype for windows mobile is no better either. It's so bad that it makes eating Surströmming for every meal at home very, very appealing 🤢.
I'm glad you set focus on why developers should care of UWP, if Microsoft won't take UWP seriously themselves. They give a terrible message to developers by not focus on UWP, and they still wonder why there is so feve developers who create UWP apps?
Please make an intervju with some who has responsible for UWP in Microsoft (but maybe they don't now ;-) ) and ask them why thy don't have more focus on UWP. Also ask them if they see what horrible message they give developers by always release apps for iOS and Android first, and then telle "UWP is coming laiter". It's ok that they relase for iOS and Android, but UWS should always be in the first wave. Apple will never release an app to Android and tell iOS is coming laiter.
No complete delete message or thread option. No delievered & seen/read notice. People become confused when call is connected or when voice message is started. No multi-select & many basic options.
I'm Using Skype daily and it is amazing. The poor UI and slow boot is bad and hope MS bring FDL to skype as soon as possible. then SMS delivery will be welcomed
Zac, when you said "some love", I hope and pray that you mean A LOT of love. Skype has got to bring the consistent UI across all devices, especially on Windows 10. Hasn't Skype finished transitioning to a cloud-based service? Unify the interface as well. Fix the problems on the UWP app and bring the new mobile interface to that. Management needs to stay woke. Isn't Skype part of the Office family now? Wake up, people!
Have you ever tried the ios or android variants? If you have, then you wouldn't complain about the UWP version. It's the best one available.
Less features and less customization. I prefer the win32 version.
I hate this Skype
I can't send a location of whereI am. I can't send multiple files. At this point - just copy WhatsApp...
Satya showering in Ballmers initiatives. He has zero passion for MS, talks non sense and doing everything to kill windows. Lucky him Apple sucks even more. I wonder he even uses windows 10.
The day that Apple releases iMessages onto Windows, then I will uninstall Skype. The only thing that can save them is Skype is bad not just because of the UWP app's look and feel, but because it becomes unresponsive from time-to-time until you restart Skype (so far only the UWP app). It does not lock up, I just stop receiving messages and messages that I send get stuck as "Sending...". It's frustrating. I want to use an app that is phone friendly and not owned by a social media platform.
After iOS version UI "improvements" I started to love Windows 10 UWP versions again :-)
Right on the spot! That app is simply the proof that MS give no damn about UWP! Their own app looking and working like a mediocre crap! Of course, fanboys will say they love it...what more can you expect from them other than kissing MS @$$ every day.
I'm the last man standing in my family and friends circles when it comes to skype. The majority of them have moved to iPhones and use FaceTime, which admittedly works just brilliantly. It rarely drops calls, the video quality seems excellent even with poor WiFi or 4G signals and it's so simple to use. It just works.....really, really well. So here I am, a die hard windows guy with his Lumia phone and surface tablet, trying to convince my family to download the skype app for iOS, and to be fair they have, but then the goddam thing won't work. It takes forever to connect a call and the voice and video quality is awful even if your standing a foot away from your 50mbps router. So my family sigh and put up with my insistence that we stay connected through skype, but they all use FaceTime to talk to one another. I'll admit that on a few occasions I've picked up my old iPad mini that I bought on a whim in 2012 (and it still works perfectly) and used FaceTime and its just such a pleasant, bug free, straightforward experience. FaceTime has cracked the code for video calls because it does this one thing really well....it makes you feel connected. Because the call/video quality is so good it actually makes you feel like the person is right next to you. With skype you feel like you're always calling from the dark side of the moon....
Yes...it sucks
I really wonder why Microsoft thinks that developers should make UWP apps, when even Microsoft don't do it, or do it very badly? Is it TOO difficult to make UWP apps for most developers? I know I have struggled, but maybe I'm not the only one?
You should also cover LinkedIn once again, they have brought a suite of apps and none of it is on Windows. https://mobile.linkedin.com/
Thank you Techiez. For me + my Oneplus 3T that's ace. For Microsoft, they must be somewhat embarrassed.
My two biggest issues so far is it still not having a god damn transparent Live Tile making it unsuitable to pin it as a themed Windows Phone App - Which just outright blows my mind. And, on the Notification area, it cuttin off Two Factor verification codes JUST before the code making it necessary to actually open the message to be able to read it.
I have been away from Windows Central for about a year and I have to say I came back at the right time, one of the best articles I have read for a long time. Firstly you are so right about the messaging app being the way to deal with SMS, I actually like Skype but it isn't the way to deal with texts on the PC and Microsoft wasted a real opportunity with this dumb decision to force people to use Skype or make do with Cortana (How I currently send SMS from my PC's). At first I was all for the way the Skype UWP was looking, but once you turn on SMS relay the whole thing becomes a mess and although I have tried my best to use it a few times but it becomes a non logical mess ruining SMS on the PC and Skype to boot, please give us the ability to choose which way we deal with SMS. As to Skype (The UWP version) even without SMS relay turned on, the thing keeps on going backwards, I wanted to open it with my contacts on show rather than recent chats, now to show contacts I have to bring up an entirely separate menu. I have tried very hard to get my wife and children to embrace Skype as they now live away and it should be a great tool for us, with the same UWP app on our phones, Surfaces and Xbox, but try as hard as I can they really don't want to use it. Please MS, knock some peoples heads together at Skype and sort this mess out.
Microsoft as we know it. When reading this article I realized that I hardly use Skype any more. In my social life and business everything has moved to WhatsApp. WhatsApp seems to have become the standard Microsoft wanted Skype to become.
Skype needs:
- ADVERTISEMENT.
- Snapchat style "filters" every week".
- Get rid of the Skype mojis and use only emojis.
- Get rid of bots and options that only 0,00001% of the population will use.
- Keep all the profesional options and add more.
- Keep it extremely multiplatform. DONE. That is a good Skype.
I've always had the impression that the Skype team has never fully bought into being part of Microsoft.
The best thing MS can do is get rid of Skype.
Skype, like pretty much every single other UWP App from Microsoft sucks. I can't believe they keep wondering why app developers are ignoring the platform when they are barely phoning in their own apps. I've got Windows 10 on every single workstation I deal with on a daily basis and I would love to use the Mail, Calendar, People, Skype, and other apps, but every last one of them is buggy, disfunctional, and not worth dealing with. It's really a shame.
Skype as to look better like the mac os UI has with the fluent design system.
I am glad that they are still updating the desktop version, because that is the version that works with Pamela (Skype recording software). The Windows 10 version is not only as bad as this article claims, but it's built in a way that Pamela cannot use. The Windows 10 version of Skpye is just useless as it is.
Zac, this is a perfect summary. Bravo. I recently gave up with Skype UWP as well, gave up on SMS Relay and moved back to the Win32 app that just runs much better.

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Messaging Everywhere

A poor UI

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