Microsoft’s Skype has made some changes to both Android and iOS applications with the new update, as it is trying to focus on phone calls, video chats and messages. As a result of that, the company has decided to remove the Highlights feature, mainly to clear the UI, make it more appealing both visually and functionally. Highlights are not the only feature that is being removed, Skype is also removing ‘Capture’.
Those of you who are not familiar with ‘Highlights’, it was basically Skype’s take on Instagram’s and Snapchat’s Stories feature, but it seems like not many users wanted to use that feature. That is not exactly surprising, as Skype is attracting different types of consumers to Instagram and Snapchat, Skype cannot be compared to Instagram and Snapchat functionally, as they offer different sets of features / tools to users, and are used for different things. If you were a Skype Highlights users, though, you will be able to download all your highlights from Skype until September 30, so keep that in mind if you’d like to save something. This new version of Skype with updated UI is available on version 8.29 for both Android and iOS, and that version is currently rolling out to both platforms, though it may not become available for your device straight away, as it’s a staged rollout, of course.
In its blog post, Skype actually says that it worked closely with Skype consumers in order to improve the design of the app, so that it gets a better idea as to what consumers really want out of the app. The company has also created a UserVoice site so that you can vote on feature changes you’d like to prioritize, you can do that via this link. That is pretty much it, a link to Skype on Play Store is included down below, in case you’d like to check out if the update is available.