Skype for iPhone and iPad Updated with Siri and Lock Screen Support

Skype for iPhone and iPad Updated with Siri and Lock Screen Support

There’s no official announcement yet, but I see this morning that Skype for iPhone and iPad has received a fairly major update, with numerous new features. Key among them: Support for Siri and the ability to answer Skype calls above the lock screen.

Further curious, the version number has been bumped … to 6.25.1. And not something perhaps more befitting the amount of change we see here.

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Anyway. Here’s what’s new.

Siri support. You can now use Siri commands to quickly start a Skype call. Well, you could if Siri was worth a damn. This is why I never use this feature on my iPhone.

siri

Lock screen support. Now, you can answer Skype calls from your lock screen, just like a regular phone call. That’s a neat step towards a more elegant future. Who knows? Maybe someday SMS Relay will even work from iPhone.

lock

Phone contacts integration. Now, you can store your store your Skype contacts in the device;’s contacts list.

Shekels support. You can now pay for Skype Credit in Israeli Shekels.

Invite friends to Skype more easily. Now you can invite your friends to Skype directly from the contacts list: Just tap “Add Contact” (“+”) and then choose the new “Invite friends to Skype” link.

invite

Bots. Bots are now better differentiated from your contacts in the contacts list. Presumably because of their angular shape.

bot

You can download Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPadfrom the Apple App Store.

 

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Conversation 6 comments

  • 289

    Premium Member
    28 September, 2016 - 9:22 am

    <p>I still have an irrational hope that Skype will not crater, despite that fact that it consistently finds some way to disappoint:</p>
    <ul>
    <li>Every month or so I try to send my wife a Skype message or do a Skype call and it often does nothing- no ping, ring or notification. &nbsp;So I tell her to open the app, at which point she needs to log in (Seriously, why the need to always log in again? Is it because the app has updated in the background and need you to re-authenticate after every update?). &nbsp;I’ll resend the message- sometimes it comes quickly, sometimes it takes a few minutes, sometimes nothing; mind you, the app is open and active at this point but it still doesn’t always work immediately.</li>
    <li>It’s slow to load the different "moji’s" or emoticons or whatever. &nbsp;I have a 5X and she’s usually using an iPad Air so these are reasonably powerful devices. &nbsp; But we tap on the icon and just sit back and watch as the faces slowly load… one…by…one.</li>
    <li>Every few weeks I’ll get a spam friend request. &nbsp;WTF??? &nbsp;As much as I dislike Facebook, at least they have NEVER sent me a spam/bot friend request. &nbsp;</li>
    <li>Try searching for someone in Skype. &nbsp;</li>
    </ul>
    <p>Maybe this is finally the year they figure it out. &nbsp;They get everything running on the new network (no more P2P); they get the client/app situation straightened out; they then figure out how to trim the fat from the code and make it work faster and more reliably; then they figure out the situation with spammers, multiple accounts, and search. &nbsp;Maybe, right?</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 940

    28 September, 2016 - 9:50 am

    <p>Thank God for answer from Lock Screen support! The old version was a mess, forcing me to always call back the caller as the Skype App always lost track when opened.</p>

  • 1444

    28 September, 2016 - 3:25 pm

    <p>Isn’t this what they covered in the Skype For Business session at Ignite the other day?</p>

  • 5027

    28 September, 2016 - 8:03 pm

    <p>Suggestion to new site design , a "report errors in article" to the page&nbsp;<br />Then it should be easier to get information if an error happens, and to also fix it, instead of people writing about it in the comments, like I do now :)<br />In this article&nbsp;"Now, you can store your store your Skype contacts in"&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />It is however lovely to see that I’m not the only one repeating words in a sentence sometimes&nbsp;</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p>(and why isnt it possible to edit a comment&nbsp; in this new comment system? I have to delete the comment and re make it?? or am I missing something)</p>

  • 442

    29 September, 2016 - 7:19 am

    <p>Siri works pretty good for me.&nbsp; Are you sure the problem isn’t PEBSAC?&nbsp; (Problem exists between smartphone and chair)</p>

  • delta18

    31 March, 2017 - 6:12 am

    <p>Do you guys know how to get paid apps for free on iPhone? i found a cool app for my iPhone, it is working very fine on my iPhone 7. You can also try this app now. Get the <a href="http://tutuhelperappdownload.com/tutu-helper-ios-iphone/&quot; target="_blank">tutu helper for iOS</a>.</p>

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