We first saw a demonstration quietly slipped into a video in March of Outlook.com integration with Skype. Then Microsoft officially launched a preview of the service in April, but its availability was limited.
Today, the company has announced the release of Skype for Outlook.com in six countries: USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Brazil.
With Skype for Outlook.com, users can use Skype in the browser by utilizing a plugin, available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and of course Internet Explorer.
Microsoft is also integrating Skype in the final build of Windows 8.1; as a result, the Messaging app will disappear when the new OS launches in October. The company has also been slowly integrating Skype into other services (Xbox Live anyone?).
There’s no word when the Outlook.com integration will roll out to the rest of the world but Microsoft does plan to for the feature to go worldwide.
Of course, this roll out really negates the need to download the dedicated desktop application since all of its features are available in-browser (unless of course you would prefer a separate app). Windows 8 users can still utilize the “Metro” version of the app though.