Microsoft Misses Self-Imposed Deadline To Release Skype Messaging Apps

Back in early July, Microsoft amended a blog post to say that the new Skype messaging apps for Windows 10 desktop would enter the preview stage by the end of the Summer. Seeing as we are now in fall and the apps are not here, Microsoft has missed its own deadline for these apps.

Earlier this week, Microsoft’s Skype service did experience significant downtime, which the company said was due to a “larger-than-usual configuration change” that some versions of Skype were unable to process correctly. It could be possible that these new apps and the upgrade are related but that’s speculation at this time as the company has not issued any new information about when these apps will be available.

I reached out to Microsoft about the delay and they issued the following statement:

“We want to make sure Skype built into Windows 10 is the best experience possible, so we’re taking some more time to make sure it’s ready for users. In the meantime, you can continue to use Skype for Windows desktop, Skype for Windows Phone and Skype for Web on Edge.”

The new Skype apps will break apart the Skype experience into three components, according to the initial blog post, which says “Later this summer, we’ll roll out the Preview for Universal Skype experiences built into Messaging, Phone and Video apps”. Of course, the “later this summer” part is not accurate but the rest of the information should be correct as dramatic changes in plans for apps like this typically do not occur at the last minute.

The image at the top of this post is a mockup Microsoft first released back in January of what one of the new apps will look like and so far, that is all the company has shown off.

Thanks for the reminder Mehedi!