Skype Gets a Major Redesign

In keeping up with recent trends, Microsoft has given its Skype communication service a major redesign to help it avert an identity crisis and to reach out to a younger audience. The latest update marks yet another revamp in the long line of revamps for the service, which now brings it closer to Snapchat and Instagram visually than ever before.

 New Features

The emphasis here is again on the messaging aspect of the service. The app is conveniently divided across three broad categories: Find, Chat and Capture.

The first one allows you to search within messages, find an attachment (online), places or events near you. It is making it easier to share almost everything.

Secondly, you have the chat feature, which will allow you to converse with friends, with the usual features like emojis and voice messages to boot.

However, the most remarkable change here is the capture part of the app, which brings up the camera to take photos and videos via a swipe from chat. Taking a page from Snapchat’s book, Skype is the adding videos which expire within seven days of being shared.

Highlights is another feature in the camera, which brings a montage of sorts and displays the activity of a user in the past day.

Lastly, there are visual overhauls including personalization using color on the service.

Coming Soon

The update has already started rolling out to the consumer version on Android and iOS devices, with desktop users set to be covered later. Currently the update is unavailable in Pakistan.

The update is one of the more remarkable ones brought by Microsoft since its buying of the service for $8.5 billion in 2011. The deal may not have gone as expected since then, but the company seems to be energized once again and has taken another shot at rivals with this update.