Skype Modern App Updated

Microsoft announced today that it has updated its Skype Modern app for Windows 8.1/RT 8.1 to fix the endless ringing bug that also dogged its Outlook.com plug-in until recently. Additionally, the update syncs your chat history and read messages across devices much more quickly than before.

This update comes less than a week after a similar update to the Skype client for Outlook.com. As I noted in Microsoft Announces Worldwide Availability of Skype for Outlook.com, that product has proven particularly buggy over the past year. But one of the things Microsoft fixed is an issue where Skype for Outlook.com continued ringing—and ringing and ringing—after you had picked up the call with another Skype client. It looks like today's update seeks to fix the same problem, but with the Modern app version of Skype.

This update provides the following changes:

Ringing stops "much faster" when you pick up the call elsewhere. "When you pick up a call on any device and your modern Skype is on, the incoming ring will stop much faster," Skype's Aga Guzik notes in a post to a Skype blog. "Whether you have Skype on a mobile, in your Outlook.com inbox, desktop, tablet or 2-in-1, Skype calls will sync up wherever you choose to take the call from."

Synced chats. As part of an underlying platform improvement, the Skype Modern app now accurately syncs chats across all your Skype-connected devices. "Now you can have peace of mind that your friends will receive messages even if they're not on Skype at the time you hit 'send,' and, if you've read a Skype message on your phone, it'll show as 'read' when you check your messages on your laptop later in the evening," Skype's Elaine Ansell noted in a separate post to a different Skype blog. (Anyone else think Skype just needs one blog?)

Since Skype is the bundled communications app with Windows 8.1, this improvement is certainly appreciated. You'll be updated automatically, but if you've uninstalled Skype for some reason (cough), you can give it another go by downloading it from the Windows Store.