Looks Like Microsoft is Killing the UWP Version of Skype Too

It looks like Microsoft is killing its Skype for Windows 10 app and will replace it with the standard desktop Skype app instead.

There’s no official word of the change—which appears to mimic what Microsoft’s doing with OneNote—but it was first spotted by the Italian tech blog Aggiornamenti Lumia, which tweeted that the Skype Preview App has suddenly been replaced with the standard desktop Skype app in the Microsoft Store.

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“[Microsoft] obliterated every good thing the UWP [app] still had,” one Twitter user commented on the changes. “No more People app integration. No more sync with Outlook. No more automatic [Microsoft account] sign-in. No more app pausing/working in [the] background. No more good-looking title bar.”

Also missing: inline replies in notifications and Share integration. But I’m not sure these missing features mean much, as many could return as the desktop app is improved.

As you may know, Microsoft maintains multiple Skype clients, and Windows 10 users typically use the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app version that ships with that operating system. But Microsoft has been testing a Preview version in the Microsoft Store that represents the next major evolution of the client. To date, the Skype Preview apps had been based on UWP, but Microsoft is no longer backing that as its desktop app platform of the future. So the backstepping from UWP continues, as expected.

 

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  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    18 March, 2020 - 10:55 am

    <p>Can Microsoft just get a Skype strategy first? </p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      18 March, 2020 - 11:13 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532097">In reply to madthinus:</a></em></blockquote><p>Just because you don't know what it is doesn't mean they don't have one.</p>

      • jbinaz

        18 March, 2020 - 11:16 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#532103">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>No, I'm pretty sure they don't have one. </p>

        • wolters

          Premium Member
          18 March, 2020 - 11:41 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#532104">In reply to jbinaz:</a></em></blockquote><p>Agreed…Skype has never felt cohesive to me. </p>

      • sherlockholmes

        Premium Member
        18 March, 2020 - 11:28 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#532103">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>Sadly enough it wont be the first time that Microsoft has no strategy. </p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        19 March, 2020 - 7:11 am

        We know exactly what the strategy is. UWP is dead. Microsoft is moving all of the important UWP-only stuff to other frameworks. The future is what Windows always was, a mess, and developers can choose what they want. For new apps, that will almost certainly be web apps and thus not technically native Windows apps, but what’s changed is that web apps can adopt native OS features on most platforms now if they become PWAs.

        No need to overthink this.

    • zvonimirm

      Premium Member
      18 March, 2020 - 12:56 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532097">In reply to madthinus:</a></em></blockquote><p>Teams for life?</p><p>I think that Skype have same future as Skype for Business</p>

    • overseer

      18 March, 2020 - 3:18 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532097">In reply to madthinus:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not sure about a strategy, but in Windows 10 1909 it got added back up to startup and automatically logged me in when doing a fresh install. So they don't seem to know what the future of it is, but are going to shove it down our throat anyway. </p>

    • kjb434

      Premium Member
      18 March, 2020 - 10:05 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#532097"><em>In reply to madthinus:</em></a><em> It's call Teams.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2020 - 7:11 am

      It’s called Teams.

  • nerocui

    18 March, 2020 - 10:57 am

    <p>Saw this coming a mile away. As good ReactXP is, it's not popular. Maintaining a framework for just one project is just too much work. Wonder what's going to happen to the Android and iOS counterpart now. </p>

    • r2d22

      18 March, 2020 - 11:07 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532099">In reply to nerocui:</a></em></blockquote><p>also android and ios are angular and not native?</p>

  • red77star

    18 March, 2020 - 11:58 am

    <p>Generally speaking Microsoft lost market share with Skype anyway. I use Viber and Signal. This UWP thing never had a future, as Microsoft learned that they can have same UI with Win32 counterpart there was no point of UWP anymore. Microsoft stats show that people remove UWP Skype from Windows 10 and install standard Win32 Skype. I think this is a good thing. Microsoft is going to get rid of dual nature of Windows they introduced with Windows 8.</p>

    • Jeff Fodiak

      18 March, 2020 - 12:14 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532112">In reply to red77star:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Agreed. Skype is a mess and performance is poor. I still use it for communicating to a few people, but the truth is that most everyone is using either signal, whatsapp, line, or messenger.</p>

    • jupast

      18 March, 2020 - 4:04 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532112">In reply to red77star:</a></em></blockquote><p>Remember them saying on Windows Weekly years ago that someone high up the ranks was pushing for them to buy Whatsapp, but Gates and Nadella shot it down, because they had Skype. Not the best move.</p>

      • r2d22

        20 March, 2020 - 3:16 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#532156">In reply to jupast:</a></em></blockquote><p>whatsapp it's the worst, half client (phone only), that I ever saw … and please don't start with whatsapp web, that without YOUR phone connected to internet doesn't work</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2020 - 7:08 am

      I suspect that Microsoft stats really show that most people don’t remove anything from Windows. I’m sure those people have no idea what UWP is, and why would they?

      I use UWP Skype and OneNote every day and prefer them to them desktop app versions, and I’m arguably a power user. If they’re OK for me, they’re OK for most people.

      • youwerewarned

        19 March, 2020 - 3:34 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#532293">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Have used UWP and W32 Skype regularly for multi-person video conferencing without any of the issues others mention. Biggest hurdle is to get everyone to select the correct audio devices and un-mute the damn microphone.</p>

        • Fuller1754

          23 March, 2020 - 4:18 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#532390"><em>In reply to YouWereWarned:</em></a><em> Off topic, but nice profile pic! Still got my Zune HD and it still works like a charm.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • bradavon

      22 June, 2020 - 5:00 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532112">In reply to red77star:</a></em></blockquote><p>"Microsoft stats show that people remove UWP Skype from Windows 10 and install standard Win32 Skype."</p><p><br></p><p>Can you provide a link?</p><p><br></p><p>Not sure the average user would bother when Skype UWP did the job.</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        23 June, 2020 - 7:32 am

        Right. It worked just fine.

  • kshsystems

    Premium Member
    18 March, 2020 - 11:58 am

    <p>So, how much time has Microsoft lost again, with dead end Skype strategies?</p>

    • ponsaelius

      18 March, 2020 - 5:11 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532113">In reply to kshsystems:</a></em></blockquote><p>Loads. I bought the leading chat app in the world. Killed it's own chat app. Rebooted it every couple of years and let it stagnate. </p>

      • garethb

        Premium Member
        18 March, 2020 - 11:44 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#532187">In reply to ponsaelius:</a></em></blockquote><p>Its called "the Windows Phone strategy".</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    18 March, 2020 - 1:25 pm

    <p>Wouldn't it be kinder just to kill UWP?</p>

    • sherlockholmes

      Premium Member
      18 March, 2020 - 1:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532132">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>Since when does Microsoft do the obvious? </p>

    • kjb434

      Premium Member
      18 March, 2020 - 10:05 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#532132"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a><em> They already have done that.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • truerock2

    18 March, 2020 - 2:11 pm

    <p>I really liked the design of NetMeeting. NetMeeting was an example of almost perfect design.</p><p><br></p><p>I have always hated Skype. Skype has never been intuitive and its GUI design is messy.</p><p><br></p><p>I'd paste an image of NetMeeting into this post – except, how do you do that on this board?</p><p class="ql-indent-1"><img src=""></p>

    • r2d22

      18 March, 2020 - 4:50 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532145">In reply to truerock2:</a></em></blockquote><p>Skype was developed by Skype, than MS bought it</p><p><br></p><p>I always preferred MSN messenger, far ahead as features and UI</p>

  • rm

    18 March, 2020 - 2:14 pm

    <p>I'm confused, so they want there productivity software to run slower on Windows 10x?</p>

    • r2d22

      18 March, 2020 - 4:51 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532146">In reply to RM:</a></em></blockquote><p>let's ask Nadella</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2020 - 7:05 am

      They’re about to announce Teams for consumers. Which is a web app. Which will run great on Windows 10X.

      • r2d22

        20 March, 2020 - 3:15 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#532290">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>"Which is a web app. Which will run great on Windows 10X."</p><p><br></p><p>this is misleading, it's not because it's a web app runs great on windows 10x, it's just windows 10x can run any web app… but a native UWP would run much better (faster, lighter, less resources and full access to OS api like notifications ecc…)</p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          20 March, 2020 - 8:36 am

          Maybe it would. But it doesn’t matter since UPW is a dead-end and no developer would ever choose UWP for a new project now. The web makes way more sense, as do cross-platform frameworks like Flutter.

          Whatever. PWA has plenty of native OS integration bits. And more are on the way. Windows 10X is about the future, not the past. And UWP is not the future, sorry.

          • hansolo

            02 April, 2020 - 6:11 am

            <blockquote><em><a href="#532572">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>funny that you talk about Flutter that support ios and android, but you don't mention Xamarin.Forms that supports ios, android and UWP (with all devices and platforms supported by UWP)</p>

            • Paul Thurrott

              Premium Member
              02 April, 2020 - 8:56 am

              I don’t see the humor. What do you mean?

          • bradavon

            22 June, 2020 - 4:58 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#532572">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I'm a big fan of Web Apps and PWAs but they're not always a replacement for Desktop class apps. Load times are slower one for thing as you're loading a website.</p><p><br></p><p>The Teams PWA is really good, but it's not as fluid as the Win32 app.</p>

    • hansolo

      02 April, 2020 - 6:01 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#532146">In reply to RM:</a></em></blockquote><p>&nbsp;Meanwhile the Xbox app is finally ditching electron for UWP</p><p><br></p>

  • waethorn

    18 March, 2020 - 2:45 pm

    <p>Again??</p>

  • nkhughes

    18 March, 2020 - 5:32 pm

    <p>They said they'd be restoring the functionality missing from the v7.x 'classic' Win32 Skype…I'm still waiting for my Plantronics handset to work properly again, i.e. for the handset buttons to actually work. I bought it about 6 months before they dropped v7.x. I don't have much faith in them moving over any missing things from the UWP version.</p><p><br></p><p>The current desktop version is also one of the most unreliable applications on my Win10 laptop. When it's not shutting down for no apparent reason, it's just sitting there no longer updating the contacts' status reliably.</p>

  • Omen_20

    18 March, 2020 - 9:46 pm

    <p>I don't even know what the old version looks like since I've only used Skype in UWP form on Windows 10. I like many would only use the win32 version of OneNote 2016, but in this situation I'm afraid I'll miss UWP Skype. It works really well for chat and video calls. I'm curious if this has anything to do with Skype being added to Teams eventually.</p>

  • BigM72

    19 March, 2020 - 4:12 am

    <p>I thought we decided that a "UWP-only" future was killed by Microsoft but that UWP as an option amongst many would continue to exist. I think this was the discussion we had in the context of Windows 10X viz just how dead UWP was?</p><p><br></p><p>If 10X is the future of Windows, why are they still preferring "normal" desktop apps to UWP ones?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2020 - 7:01 am

      All we can do is speculate, but Windows 10X will run web apps just fine too. Perhaps Microsoft sees PWAs/web apps as the future. And Teams is a web app.

  • r2d22

    19 March, 2020 - 8:42 am

    <p>Some more objective details:</p><p><br></p><p>"Skype replaced its "UWP" app with Electron, but honestly, it was barely UWP already. It had a Win32 component and it used a web framework for the UI. Almost nothing about it was native. The original Skype uwp app was great, and it's been downhill ever since they switched to web."</p><p><br></p><p>source: twitter.com/kid_jenius/status/1240292862274596865</p>

  • smithpm

    20 March, 2020 - 1:09 am

    <p>Maintaining UWP and non-UWP versions of Skype is as silly as having separate Premium and Standard user comments on thurrott.com</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      20 March, 2020 - 8:38 am

      <p>Yeah. Except one company has $33 billion in revenues each quarter and the other one has one web developer with a long list of bigger problems.

      So I guess they're not as silly as each other, really.</p>

  • mixedfarmer75

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2020 - 10:15 am

    <p>I thought the Skype strategy was Teams? </p>

  • Fuller1754

    23 March, 2020 - 4:17 pm

    <p>Due to Coronavirus, I've been hearing lots about Zoom and nearly nothing about Skype. My work … implementing Zoom. Wife's work … meets via Zoom. Bible study? Zoom. My financial adviser? Working remotely and using Zoom. I would guess I've heard people mention Zoom ten times more than Skype in the last two weeks. If I were Microsoft, this would worry me. </p>

  • hansolo

    02 April, 2020 - 5:59 am

    <p>&nbsp;Meanwhile the Xbox app is finally ditching electron for UWP</p><p><br></p>

  • bradavon

    22 June, 2020 - 4:56 pm

    <p>I just had Skype for Windows 10 (UWP) replaced with Skype for Windows Desktop (Win32) :(. It's so recent the Store listing still says it's the Windows 10 version and lists ARM under System Requirements tab. Which is no longer the case.</p><p><br></p><p>It looks pretty ugly compared tot the Win10 App which properly fitted into Windows 10 design language.</p><p><br></p><p>I use a Surface Pro X so have gone from Skype with full ARM4 support (UWP), to Skype under emulation with the 32-Bit version. I now have a lag I didn't before, granted not a big lag but a lag still the same.</p><p><br></p><p>Frustratingly Electron is available for ARM64, but Microsoft seem to be content WoA devices using the 32-Bi x86 versions of Skype and Teams. Hopefully Skype 32-Bit runs better than Teams 32-Bit, loads of reports of crashing.</p><p><br></p><p>Electron uses a load of RAM. Which isn't what you want when you're emulating.</p>

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