Remember Skype? Well, it’s still around, and while the likes of Google Meet and Microsoft Teams might hog the communications spotlight now, Microsoft is still working on Skype - and is hoping to make it more popular by killing the ads in the app and adding (you guessed it) AI features.
In the recently published release notes for Skype Insider build 8.125, Microsoft outlined the big changes in this new preview version. The major development, as mentioned, is that the adverts are being dumped, and that means all of them, with Microsoft proclaiming that "Skype is now ad-free!"
In short, Skype users will no longer see ads in Skype Channels and across the rest of the Skype platform, making for a much-improved user experience, or that should be the case (not that I’ve used Skype in quite some time). Remember, though, that this move is still in testing - so there’s no guarantee it will come to fruition.
As well as banishing the adverts, Microsoft has brought in an improved AI image creator in the Skype desktop apps, enabling users to generate images directly in their chat window, or from the top bar of the interface. Additionally, users can now expand these AI-generated images with just a click.
Alongside these bigger changes, Microsoft has integrated OneAuth into Skype for iOS, giving users an option to make signing in easier. This enables users to replace classic sign-in systems with OneAuth and be signed into Skype automatically if they’re already signed into another Microsoft app - pretty handy.
The preview build also includes the usual bug fixes and improvements to app stability.
A new and improved Skype for the modern age
While I don’t know why Microsoft thinks everyone has suddenly developed a hunger for AI image generators in every corner of Windows 11 and its apps, but I guess the changes on that front don’t hurt. However, when it comes to giving ads the axe - now we’re talking. It’s great to see Windows 11 lose some adverts for a change, rather than having more of them jammed in - even if these are ads in an app you don’t use much (or at all).
Skype does have an active user base in the hundreds of millions, though, and it appears Microsoft is keen to make it more popular with the casting aside of adverts.
If this development has piqued your interest and you want to see the ad-free Skype, you’ll need to download the latest Skype Insider build - or wait for all these features and changes to come to the release version of the app (which hopefully won’t take too long).
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