Skype support coming to Outlook.com

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 30, 2013
Updated • Jun 23, 2019
Microsoft
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5

Microsoft paid more than 8 Billion Dollars for Skype and it was clear to me back then that the company had to have plans to push Skype into Microsoft products to not only improve the products but also to get back the money it invested into the technology.

We have seen that happen soon thereafter, for example by coming to an agreement with Facebook that integrated Skype into the world's most popular social networking site, or the retiring of Windows Live Messenger in favor of Skype.

Simon Longbottom announced on the official Skype blog yesterday that Skype is becoming available on Microsoft's email platform Outlook.com. Both audio and video calling will be added to Outlook.com so that users of it can make use of those features right away. It makes sense from a user perspective, considering that it may sometimes be easier to call a recipient instead of sending email messages back and forth.

The feature will be rolled out in the United Kingdom first, with Germany and the United States following in the next weeks, and the rest of the world this Summer. Microsoft released a video that introduces the new feature, and it is the only source of information that we have right now - besides the blog post announcing the launch - that sheds some light on how Skype is integrated into the Outlook.com website.

The video highlights that users can use the audio and video chat capabilities of Skype on the site by clicking on the profile photos of contacts on the Outlook.com website. Here they also find options to compose a new message and chat (I think that's a chat symbol but can't verify) with the selected recipient.

Technically, it is required to download and install a plugin that integrates Skype in to the browser. The plugin will be made available for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. Once the plugin is installed, existing Skype users will be asked to link the account to Outlook.com so that all Skype contacts become available here as well.

Adding video and voice chat capabilities to Outlook.com makes a lot of sense as it is often easier and more convenient to call than to write email messages. The plugin requirement may keep some users from using the new feature though.

Update: Microsoft made Skype the exclusive chat and voice communication tool on Outlook.com in 2015

Summary
Skype support coming to Outlook.com
Article Name
Skype support coming to Outlook.com
Description
Microsoft revealed in 2013 that it would integrate the previously purchased Skype communication technology into Outloo.com.
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Comments

  1. Some Dude said on March 19, 2023 at 11:42 am
    Reply

    Are these articles AI generated?

    Now the duplicates are more obvious.

    1. boris said on March 19, 2023 at 11:48 pm
      Reply

      This is below AI generated crap. It is copy of Microsoft Help website article without any relevant supporting text. Anyway you can find this information on many pages.

  2. Paul(us) said on March 20, 2023 at 1:32 am
    Reply

    Yes, but why post the exact same article under a different title twice on the same day (19 march 2023), by two different writers?
    1.) Excel Keyboard Shortcuts by Trevor Monteiro.
    2.) 70+ Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows by Priyanka Monteiro

    Why oh why?

    1. Clairvaux said on September 6, 2023 at 11:30 am
      Reply

      Yeah. Tell me more about “Priyanka Monteiro”. I’m dying to know. Indian-Portuguese bot ?

  3. John G. said on August 18, 2023 at 4:36 pm
    Reply

    Probably they will announce that the taskbar will be placed at top, right or left, at your will.

    Special event by they is a special crap for us.

  4. yanta said on August 18, 2023 at 11:59 pm
    Reply

    If it’s Microsoft, don’t buy it.
    Better brands at better prices elsewhere.

  5. John G. said on August 20, 2023 at 4:22 am
    Reply

    All new articles have zero count comments. :S

  6. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 7:48 am
    Reply

    WTF? So, If I add one photo to 5 albums, will it count 5x on my storage?
    It does not make any sense… on google photos, we can add photo to multiple albums, and it does not generate any additional space usage

    I have O365 until end of this year, mostly for onedrive and probably will jump into google one

  7. St Albans Digital Printing Inc said on September 5, 2023 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    Photo storage must be kept free because customers chose gadgets just for photos and photos only.

  8. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 12:47 pm
    Reply

    What a nonsense. Does it mean that albums are de facto folders with copies of our pictures?

    1. GG said on September 6, 2023 at 8:24 am
      Reply

      Sounds exactly like the poor coding Microsoft is known for in non-critical areas i.e. non Windows Core/Office Core.

      I imagine a manager gave an employee the task to create the album feature with hardly any time so they just copied the folder feature with some cosmetic changes.

      And now that they discovered what poor management results in do they go back and do the album feature properly?

      Nope, just charge the customer twice.

      Sounds like a go-getter that needs to be promoted for increasing sales and managing underlings “efficiently”, said the next layer of middle management.

  9. d3x said on September 5, 2023 at 7:33 pm
    Reply

    When will those comments get fixed? Was every editor here replaced by AI and no one even works on this site?

  10. Scroogled said on September 5, 2023 at 10:47 pm
    Reply

    Instead of a software company, Microsoft is now a fraud company.

  11. ard said on September 7, 2023 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    For me this is proof that Microsoft has a back-door option into all accounts in their cloud.
    quote “…… as the MSA key allowed the hacker group access to virtually any cloud account at Microsoft…..”
    unquote

    so this MSA key which is available to MS officers can give access to all accounts in MS cloud.This is the backdoor that MS has into the cloud accounts. Lucky I never got any relevant files of mine in their (MS) cloud.

  12. Andy Prough said on September 7, 2023 at 6:52 pm
    Reply

    >”Now You: what is your theory?”

    That someone handed an employee a briefcase full of cash and the employee allowed them access to all their accounts and systems.

    Anything that requires 5-10 different coincidences to happen is highly unlikely. Occam’s razor.

  13. TelV said on September 8, 2023 at 12:04 pm
    Reply

    Good reason to never login to your precious machine with a Microsoft a/c a.k.a. as the cloud.

  14. Anonymous said on September 18, 2023 at 1:23 pm
    Reply

    The GAFAM are always very careless about our software automatically sending to them telemetry and crash dumps in our backs. It’s a reminder not to send them anything when it’s possible to opt out, and not to opt in, considering what they may contain. And there is irony in this carelessness biting them back, even if in that case they show that they are much more cautious when it’s their own data that is at stake.

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