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New Skype Preview for Windows Phone 8 Drops Contacts Integration

People hub integration was causing instability in previous releases, but it will make a comeback
Jan. 3, 2013 Paul Thurrott

Microsoft and Skype today announced the awkwardly named Skype for Windows Phone 8 Preview 2.1, which takes a temporary step back in the integration department: In this release, Skype can no longer integrate its contacts list with the Windows Phone People hub.

Skype says it is working with the Windows Phone team to resolve an issue with the integration, which in previous releases caused device instability. (This was widely reported by many early users.) But the new upgrade does offer a few new features too:

Updated chat keyboard with improved autocomplete/autocorrect.

Windows Live Messenger integration: Buddies from Windows Live Messenger are labeled in the People list.

Windows Live Messenger integration: Added option to enable toast notifications for Windows Live Messenger buddies.

Beyond this, Skype says the new release fixes some bugs related to the reliability of presence and chat and call notifications when the app is closed and the incorrect ordering of chat messages. Skype recommends that users upgrade immediately, if only to prevent their handsets from spontaneously rebooting. (My words, not theirs.)

You can download Skype for Windows Phone 8 Preview 2.1 from the Windows Phone Store.

Discuss this Article 10

pmbAustin
on Jan 3, 2013

So, the problem with "FaceTime" is that both users have to have iPhones.

Is MS going to push Skype to the point where it's the "universal FaceTime", working on every platform, allowing voice, video, chat, etc., across iOS/Android/WP8? I hope that's their goal. I'm just wondering how long it's going to take, and how easy it'll ultimately be to use (because FaceTime is dead-easy to use).

Waethorn
on Jan 3, 2013

I don't see how Skype isn't already universally available. It's on every architecture Windows platform, it's on Android, it's on iOS, and it's certainly on all the relevant computer platforms.

The WinRT app is extremely easy to use too, though I wish it didn't have it's own contact list that's separate from your standard Microsoft Account contacts. I have contacts that have both Messenger and Skype access, so they show up twice.

MarkH
on Jan 3, 2013

"device instability"...that's a very gentle way of saying "spastic, unstoppable, continuous reboots." Nearly had to take my wife's phone back to Verizon because the early version turned it into a reboot-every-half-second brick. Thankfully the very few times it made it all the way to the start screen (for a whopping 1 or 2 seconds) some fast fingers were able to uninstall that rubbish.

And Microsoft wonders why Google doesn't want them making a YouTube app?

InfoDave
on Jan 3, 2013

Seems to me, the Hub concept is a key differentiator in Windows Phone. It is a reason to own this phone over any other. Let's hope Skype will integrate with the People Hub soon.

Christopher Geo...
on Jan 3, 2013

Lots of reasons to own WP8 in my opinion. The people hub is great but just one of many reasons to love the OS.

GoodThings2Life
on Jan 3, 2013

I agree... it seems absurd to me that Skype isn't integrating the chat component into People/Messaging hub and only keeping the audio/video components in a separate app function. The messaging hub is perfect as-is for using Text/WLM/FB chat, so Skype seems like an obvious addition.

InfoDave
on Jan 3, 2013

You say absurd, I say problematic. It does not appear this was done by choice, but was removed out of necessity.

zikifer
on Jan 3, 2013

Integration with the People Hub is neat and all, but I'd like to see integration with the Messaging Hub.

mod6538
on Jan 3, 2013

Can someone please explain this? When I video-chat in Skype on a WP8 (portrait mode) with a PC (landscape mode), the phone shows only the vertical slice of the video (i.e. sides are cut off) and the PC shows only the middle of video from the phone (i.e. top and bottom are cut off).. How stupid is this? Why can't they fit all video into the screen, so that nothing is missing?

InfoDave
on Jan 3, 2013

@mod6538 I had the exact same response with what IE6 would do with fairly basic HTML web site. How can you make such moronic choices? It wasn't a pretty sight. And to the IE6 user, it wasn't a pretty site. Get it?

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