Skype Gets a New Recently Active Status

Microsoft is testing a new update for Skype that’s going to introduce some changes to the account statuses. The company is introducing a new Recently Active status as well as a new Away status on Skype.

The new recently active status essentially tells your contact when you were recently active. Your account will show up as recently active when you were active within the last hour, but Skype will add an option to configure the duration in the future.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The company is also bringing back the popular Away status.

And if you have the Skype app open in Windows 10, you will no longer be shown as inactive — even if you are not actually on the app and it’s just running on the background. The update is also going to add tray support for the app so it shows you an indicator for unread message on the tray when the app is running.

Both the features are in testing today, if you are a Skype Insider you should be able to try it out right away.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 8 comments

  • StagyarZilDoggo

    Premium Member
    07 December, 2018 - 12:28 pm

    <p>Skype 8 is ever so slowly inching towards being half as usable as Skype 7 was…</p>

  • MikeGalos

    07 December, 2018 - 4:18 pm

    <p>Confirmed that the new features are running on my Insider copy.</p>

  • Winner

    07 December, 2018 - 5:07 pm

    <p>Skype went from (many years ago) a really nice clean program to an infested mess with ads and performance issues.</p><p>I had a Skype popup a week or so ago that informed me that I could change skin colors now on my emojis. I kid you not. They try so hard to be "hip" and copy everybody. And they fail repeatedly.</p><p><br></p><p>And of course Microsoft has a number of products named Skype now, just like Outlook and Windows. A typical Microsoft naming mess.</p>

  • JimmyFal

    07 December, 2018 - 9:18 pm

    <p>Skype is actually only now beginning to get back on its feet after years of confusion. Puttig in a feature that the desktop has had all along is just basic IM 101. I'm a bit disgusted it took this long yet happy to have it.</p><p><br></p><p> Its as if some sort of common sense has overtaken the Skype team. How else are we supposed to send an "instant" message unless we know the person is actually available to get it? Jesus whats next, Contact Groups in the Mail App?</p>

  • dontbe evil

    09 December, 2018 - 11:13 am

    <p>I didn't get this need of the tray icon back, and I hope that I'll keep receive call and messages with skype closed like any modern app </p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC