Microsoft is Removing All Ads from Skype

After Microsoft tried to make Skype a news destination with content from its MSN portal, the company is about to take an unexpected step: Skype will soon become completely ad-free. The latest Skype update that’s available for Insiders today removes all ads from the messaging app.

“We’re excited to announce that Skype is now ad-free,” the Skype team said today. “Our latest update removes all ads from Skype channels and the entire Skype platform, ensuring a smoother, decluttered and more enjoyable user experience.”

I don’t use Skype enough to remember ever being bothered by any ads, but the new Skype Channels feeding articles from Microsoft’s Start platform apparently had ads, and they’re now going away. Skype also had a “Today” view showing the Microsoft Start newsfeed (with ads), but I can’t find it anymore as of this writing.

Microsoft has introduced ads in a couple of its free products in recent years. The new web-based Outlook for Windows will show you ads unless you have a Microsoft 365 consumer subscription. The Outlook Mobile app also now has a “Channels” tab showing the Microsoft Start newsfeed with ads in it. I’m not sure why anyone would want to read news and see ads in an email client, but let’s hope the Outlook team is looking at what the Skype team is doing.

Anyway, back to Skype: The app has pretty much taken a back seat since Microsoft has been trying (and failing) to make “Teams for consumers” a thing, but Skype is still getting regular updates. Skype was actually one of the first apps to integrate Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, and today’s Insider update introduces a revamped AI image creation experience on the desktop.

Skype is also simplifying the sign-in process on iOS devices with OneAuth support, which is something the Android already had. Lastly, mobile users who are already signed into any Microsoft app on their devices will be automatically signed into Skype.