It’s been over a year since Microsoft acquired Skype and little has been said about the acquisition up until now. Skype functions on Windows Phone 7 though it doesn’t do so particularly well. Hopefully that’s something that will change with the ground-up re-architecturing that Microsoft has been doing in order to make Skype and Windows 8 work seamlessly together. The Verge has a hands-on preview of the newest version of Skype that will likely serve as the premiere video and voice calling app for Windows 8.
The new version of Skype for Windows 8 supports all the old features of the client designed for Windows 7, including built-in SMS support so that you can text any of your contacts using Skype credit. Group chats, video calling, and traditional audio calls are working seamlessly and are completely integrated into the People app, which is a much welcome change. It looks like Microsoft is finally acknowledging that Skype can be for Windows 8/Phone 8 what Google Voice is for Android.
