Just like last year, users on Windows 10 are rejecting the new-look Skype experience. As MSpoweruser reports, Windows 10 Insiders are unhappy with the new application. Many of them are making their feelings known and some a threatening to leave the service completely: “Designers shouldn’t compromise the desktop client look and feel to deal with the limitations of a phone. Desktop people want a desktop experience. Slower unintuitive interfaces with less[sic] features is not the way forward. Flat design is a plague on the industry and it needs to die,” one user said. That’s not the only account and a sizeable number of users are forming on Reddit who dislike the new app. Of course, the other side of the coin is there will always be users who reject change. Microsoft’s new Skype app certainly lacks some of the features of the previous version. It is now more streamlined and clearly resembles a mobile experience. For users who have no interest in mobile and exclusively use desktop, that may be a problem. Still, it is worth noting that when the “trainwreck” iOS and Android update arrived last year, Microsoft essentially rode out the storm. Those who hated it enough left, but most stayed and just kept using Skype. Surely the company will be hoping for a similar situation to play out on Windows 10. It will be interesting to see what will happen if user figures drop significantly, would the company change the update?
Unifying the Experience
Microsoft is looking to make Skype as uniform as possible so that is can cross platforms more seamlessly. The company does not want notably different versions for different form factors. That makes sense from a development perspective and simply for achieving a synergy in design and usability. That’s a big reason why the company has recently decided to base the Skype UWP app on Facebook’s React Native framework.
