Microsoft to continue investing in Skype, new features coming soon

Microsoft has been particularly focused on Teams especially during this lockdown as user activity grew exponentially. Microsoft Skype on the other hand is being overshadowed by Teams. The company however said that it will continue investing in Skype and launch new features soon.

Microsoft Teams caters to the working professionals and its usage has boomed due to people working from home. Microsoft is also launching a consumer version of Teams soon. Skype which is optimised more for personal use may phase out with the launch of Teams. But Microsoft still has plans for Skype and will continue working on it.

“We’re continuing to invest in Skype. It’s growing through all this. You’ll see some new features. You’ll see Skype and Teams interoperate. As Teams lands with consumers and does more things, I think people will pick Teams. But we’re not going to be heavy-handed about this. People love Skype. And so, we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves here,” Venture Beat quoted Jeff Teper, CVP for Microsoft 365 as saying.

Microsoft said Skype crossed 40 million daily active users earlier this March. This is a 70% increase month over month for Skype. Calling minutes on Skype were also up by 220%, Microsoft said.

Skype which should have soared during this time had another competitor which quickly took the top spot and that’s Zoom. Microsoft did introduce a few features for Skype like custom backgrounds, and even a tool to let people join calls without having to sign-up or download the app.