Skype rolled out an update about two months ago where they debuted a new user interface that displayed the company’s commitment to connect with a younger demographic. It has an interface that looks very much like Snapchat Discover and it is kind of weird to see such a decision made to an app that we have known for long mainly as a video chatting platform.
Starting today, Skype has announced that they are rolling out the new user interface to desktop as a preview. The experience is not final yet and it will need feedback from the people who will ultimately use it.
“Skype Preview delivers most of the great features of our next generation mobile experience but it is specifically designed with desktop in mind to take advantage of the larger screen.” Skype said in the blogpost.
In the new update, there is a notification panel which will allow you to keep up with updates from your friends and use mentions to track conversations you were mentioned in. There is also message reactions where you get to see how people reacted to your messages. There is also a new chat media gallery where you will find shared contents like media, documents or links easily. Skype also claims that group calls have been enhanced where you can customize your group call experience using drag and drop and in call reactions.
You can download Skype Preview for Macs and non-Windows 10 PC users here and Skype says that if you have Skype for Windows 10, they have already started rolling some of these features. Skype Preview will install alongside Skype classic so that it makes it easy for you to switch.
