Skype UWP Preview App for PCs Adds Group Features

Microsoft today released its second pre-release version of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app version of Skype for PCs, adding new group features. A version that runs on Mobile is in the works as well.

As with the first version of the app, you must be running a Windows Insider build of Windows 10 to use the Skype UWP app. With this version, you can now create and send group audio and video calls with up to four video images onscreen at once. And you can engage in group instant messaging as well.

OK, that’s straightforward enough. But in some ways, the bigger news is that Microsoft is teasing the coming release of the Skype UWP app for Mobile.

This app, which will appear in a future Insider build—and not build 14327, which was released today—will allow you to access both Skype and SMS/MMS messages from a single place, though that place is changing from the Messaging app to this new app. (I assume one could still use Messaging for SMS/MMS.)

And until that app does ship on Windows 10 Mobile for Insiders, Microsoft recommends sticking with the Skype app Windows Phone 8.