by Sarah Perez (@sarahintampa)
Earlier this year, Skype introduced a revamped version of its application offering a heavier focus on media sharing and social expression tools, in an effort to better compete with more modern social communication services, like Slack and even Snapchat. Today, the company is publicly launching the new version of Skype to the desktop, including on Mac, Windows 10 (November 2016 update and lower), Windows 8, Windows 7, and Linux.
The app had been in Preview on the desktop since August.
During that time, Microsoft says it responded to user feedback in determining which features to prioritize, as it transitioned Skype’s new look to the desktop platform.
For instance, one of Skype’s more controversial features – a Snapchat “Stories”-like mode called “Highlights” – is not available in the desktop app at this time. The decision was made based directly on Skype testers’ feedback, we understand. While the company still wants to add Highlights to the desktop in a later release, for now it remains a mobile-only feature.
