Skype team hosted a questions and answers event today, here’s what they revealed

3 min. read

Published on September 13, 2016

published on September 13, 2016

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As we reported just a few days ago, the Skype team would host a live Q&A event today. Sure enough, a small group behind the scenes sat down around a conference table and took questions from the community through Twitter and their forum. They answered plenty of questions and even gave us quite a look into what could be in store for Skype in the not so distant future.

Audio and video device controls for ways to switch multiple inputs
Integration with the Windows Share charm
Link previews
Skype UWP on Xbox
Improved search functionality
Displaying contacts from the People app
Hide conversation
Skype Auto Answer with Video
Image pasting and screen clippings
Video Voicemails / Video Messaging
IM Quoting
Mobile app Live Tiles
Transparent Live Tiles

There were some features that they mentioned were being investigated for integration, but weren’t necessarily guaranteed to make it in. Of course, nothing is guaranteed until the feature is released, but here are some that they are considering:

Support for breaking through Corana’s Quiet hours
Location related features such as sharing via Windows Share charm
GIF previews
Individual window sharing while in a call
Supporting USB cameras instead of the phone’s native camera
Improved Live Tiles with a text preview and message count
Delete conversation
Opening conversation in a separate window
Creating groups of contacts

It was clear that a lot of the feedback given through the Q&A event left some lingering thoughts for the team to consider. Some even replied that they were inspired by ideas that users had sent in and that they’d look into adding it to ‘the list’. Such as:

Cross messaging app communications such as connecting to GroupMe
Custom wallpapers
Mute for group conversations
Moving the self view window

One user on Twitter even asked the team if they were working on a way to prevent “the slew of random ‘Friend Requests’ which are likely spambots.” Team member Meduri assured that they were looking into the issue and might have something up their sleeves for a future release.

Perhaps one of the more exciting features is already being tested internally. According to the Skype team, the SMS integration will be releasing to Windows Insider previews as soon as it’s ready.

Earlier this year we announced native SMS integration (on Windows Phone) and Relay (on Windows PC), this functionality will enable you to send and receive SMS messages from your Windows Phone and Windows PC running Windows 10 Anniversary Update. We are currently in internal testing of this feature with plans to release to Windows Insider once the quality requirements are met. As for integrated calling, this is good feedback and something we will consider in the future.

They even replied to ensure that Skype will be continually receiving monthly updates with bug fixes and new features. “We know there are some much loved features missing in Skype Preview that are used in the Win32 version of Skype. We are actively working to close this gap,” they stated, confirming that the name of Skype Preview will indeed be switched back to Skype once it has met the bar.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.