Last week Microsoft announced that it would be rolling out Skype for Web in beta for users in the US and UK to try out.
This web based version of Skype is designed to work within a browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) through installing a plugin, eliminating the need to have installed the desktop client to use Skype.
Unfortunately, as Extremetech discovered during their hands-on with the beta, Skype for Web is not supported in Microsoft’s newest browser for Windows 10, Microsoft Edge. Users who try to open Skype for Web in Microsoft Edge will be greeted by a message saying this website, https://web.skype.com, works best in Internet Explorer. Even if you click the option to keep going in Project Spartan (the present branding of Microsoft Edge) nothing will happen.
However, I was able to pull up Skype for Web through Internet Explorer on Windows 10, so this seems to be purely an issue of compatibility with Microsoft Edge.
The current build available to Windows Insiders was released to the Fast Ring before the announcement of Skype for Web’s beta, so hopefully this incompatibility is just a temporary setback for these different pieces of software that are still in development. Beta software and technical previews are suppose to have bugs, but with less than 2 months to the release of Windows 10, which hopes to showcase Microsoft Edge as the new premier modern browser, it’s clear there are still big fixes to be finalized.
Further reading: Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Microsoft Edge, Project Spartan, Skype for web, Windows 10
