Skype was once the messaging and voice calling app of choice, but these days, people mostly use different apps depending on which they’re engaging in. It’s also now under the Microsoft umbrella, which sees it getting a bit neglected in favour of the company’s own Teams for video calls. But the maker of Windows now says that it is cleaning Skype up, and those within the Insider beta testing group can get early access to it.
As part of the release notes for version 8.125.76.201 for Skype Insiders, the company says that the software is getting decluttered with the removal of ads from the entire platform. Windows Latest also cites an insider who says that “Microsoft wants people to fall in love with Skype again”, and if this is the goal, the removal of ads makes some degree of sense.
In addition to decluttering, Microsoft also says that it is improving the AI image generation feature within Skype. It is now easily accessible from the chat window, sort of like a side window the way Copilot appears in Windows 11. This would be continued iteration from when the company first announced that the messaging and calls app would get Copilot integration, once upon a time still called Bing AI.
As with most things Insider, there’s no word on when all these improvements will be rolled out to the general version of Skype. But even then, it remains to be seen if the app can reclaim the thrones it lost to the likes of Discord, Teams and Zoom, among other more popular apps that do the things it does now.
(Source: Microsoft, Windows Latest)
