Microsoft's Skype Drops Modern App In Favour of Old-Fashioned Win32 App

mikejuk writes: Microsoft, after putting a lot of effort into persuading us that Universal Apps are the way of the future, pulls the plug on Skype modern app, to leave just the desktop version. Skype is one of Microsoft's flagship products and it has been available as a desktop Win32 app and as a Modern/Metro/WinRT app for some time. You would think that Skype would support Universal Apps, there are few enough of them — but no. According to the Skype blog: 'Starting on July 7, we're updating PC users of the Windows modern application to the Windows desktop application, and retiring the modern application.' Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 Universal Apps as the development platform for now and the future, but its Skype team have just disagreed big time. If Microsoft can't get behind the plan why should developers? (Also at Windows Central and VentureBeat.)

Comments

Re:Universal App APIs are too limited

[Rhywden]

Of course you can get that to work - you can access USB devices just fine through Universal Apps.

I'm currently doing that myself for a USB measuring device which is used for Physics lessons and can measure speeds, voltage, magnetic field strengths and so on. The vendor's program is written by engineers for engineers - and not so much suited for pupils. So I'm using the Vendor's API and implement a custom-tailored solution for every experiment the pupils have to do.

Re:nobody wants a fullscreen IM app

[squiggleslash]

nobody wants a fullscreen IM app. that's the problem.

Well, except tablet users...

Hopefully if Windows 10 actually takes off, we'll see more interest by groups like Google in producing decent tablet versions of their applications for Windows.

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Re:nobody wants a fullscreen IM app

[arglebargle_xiv]

nobody wants a fullscreen IM app. that's the problem.

Well, except tablet users...

You've asked all of them, I suppose?

I use Skype on a tablet, and I want it as a background app so I can chat while I'm doing other stuff. I don't want it taking over the entire screen, or doing anything else more significant than a notification area icon to tell me it's still running.

Re:nobody wants a fullscreen IM app

[squiggleslash]

I assume though you haven't used it on a Windows 8.1 tablet, which is what this discussion is about.

In context, both I and the person I was replying to used the term "full screen" to refer to apps that use the Metro interface. They're not really "full screen", they appear that way by default, but they can be snapped to the side of the screen.

The opposite is not some background app that can float over other apps, it's an app that runs on the Windows 8.1 Desktop. The desktop is awkward to use with the touchscreen. I seriously do not need to "ask all of them (tablet users)" to know that almost no tablet user wants their IM clients to run in a window on the desktop.