Skype is a great application but Windows Live Messenger it is not. Messenger was heralded as one of the greatest instant messaging software apps available by many users, with more people using it than any other IMing service in the world.
Then it was scrapped in favor of Skype everywhere but mainland China (which, as it happens, will be getting a new joint venture soon) and that’s when some of the messaging woes with many users began. Users often complain of getting messages to late or not getting them at all.
Fear not; Microsoft says fixes are coming. In an interview with The Verge, Skype product manager Jeff Kunins admits Microsoft is aware of the problems and is working to address them very soon.
It turns out that many of these problems are a result of Redmond transitioning from P2P networks to the cloud. Unlike WhatsApp or Viber, Skype was originally built for PC so Microsoft had to tweak it for the mobile environment. Now it’s just a matter of getting the app to sync correctly across all devices and that is what the planned move to Windows Azure is supposed to accomplish.
“Changes in the next few months” will improve syncing on Skype
If this sounds initmately familiar to TruTower readers, it’s because we’ve covered this before. Back in October, Skype revealed “changes in the next few months” would improve the syncing situation.
Testing is currently underway at the Microsoft offices to make the syncing across multiple devices as seemless as possible.
“You’ll see us very soon begin rolling that out so users get the benefit of cloud history, synced read state across all of your devices,” Kunins confirms.
An exact date wasn’t provided for when the messaging and calling sync improvements would be released, but it’s certainly reassuring to know that Microsoft is still hard at work on the problem. The company is also working to improve the application load times and provide improved notifications.
“We’ve made a ton of progress on our Windows Phone app…”
“I don’t think we’ve talked publicly a bunch about Windows Phone 8.1 and the experience, but as you can imagine we’re certainly working closely with them and how that experience is,” Kunins told The Verge. “We’ve made a ton of progress on our Windows Phone app in general, and as you can imagine we’re doing a lot of fun things for Windows Phone 8.1 as well. I think there will be some fun things to see there.”
Could these “fun things” possibly mean a return to gaming on Skype? Very doubtful (sorry to those who have asked), especially with Xbox gaming already available across many platforms. It’s possible that stickers and other add-ons will make there way to Skype though. LINE, WeChat, Viber, and many other apps already offer stickers as part of a standard package, so it’s not too far out of the realm of possibility.