Windows 10: Skype 8.29 update to user experience for simplicity and familiarity

Brink · Sep 3, 2018

Our passion for bringing people closer together through simple, seamless experiences that “just work” is the foundation of Skype. Over time, we’ve grown beyond our origins of voice-only calling, adding video calling, messaging, group video calling, and a broad range of other features and services.

As Skype functionality has expanded, so too has its complexity. As with any feature rich product, maintaining simplicity while enhancing functionality is critical to usability. This past year we explored some design changes and heard from customers that we overcomplicated some of our core scenarios. Calling became harder to execute and Highlights didn’t resonate with a majority of users. We needed to take a step back and simplify!

Today, I want to share our focus on simplicity* to provide an overall better experience for you by making Skype faster to learn and easier to use.

Simplified navigation—We are refocusing on the fundamentals of why most people use Skype—to make a call (often with video) and/or send a message.

Our new navigation model removes redundant and underused features that create clutter—making it much easier to find the people you want to talk to and contact them in an instant. On mobile we are moving to three buttons at the bottom of the app—Chats, Calls, and Contacts. Removing Highlights and Capture provides a cleaner and more efficient user interface (UI) that is easy to navigate while still providing all the functionality Skype customers want. (Note: you will be able download all the Highlights that you have posted until September 30, 2018.)

For the desktop, we’re connecting to the Skype legacy while producing a navigation model that is familiar to our mobile experience. We moved buttons for Chats, Calls, Contacts, and Notifications to the top left of the window, making it easy for long-time Skype users to understand.

Easy to discover contacts, updated for simplicity—Our data suggests Contacts isn’t a highly used entry point for most Skype customers, but those who do use it find it a “critical” and “safety” mechanism to find people they may have otherwise forgotten in a long list of contacts.

Modern, fresh look and feel—Your content is king. We want to celebrate content AND give you a full range of color expression with light and dark themes. We toned down the visual range of the gradients and reintroduced a simplified Skype “Classic” blue theme—adjusted for contrast and readability. We also reduced some of the more decorative elements—such as notifications with a squiggle shape cut out—which weren’t core to getting things done. The result is a more elegant experience that brings your content to the forefront.

To develop these designs, our team worked closely with Skype customers. We looked at how people use Skype apps, performing extensive testing across global markets and building prototypes to test new concepts. We also created a UserVoice site so you can vote on the feature changes you want us to prioritize. While we have plenty of work left to do, we hope you find these changes simplify your experience and bring you closer to those who matter.

We are listening to your feedback and are wholly committed to improving the Skype experience based on what you are telling us. We hope this updated design makes Skype easier to use and provides a better Skype experience. This is only the beginning and you can expect many more updates over the next several months as we continue to simplify and improve the core experiences around calling, chat, and contacts. We are passionate about bringing you closer to the people in your life—so if we can do that better, please tell us. Watch this space for more to come in the near future.

—Peter Skillman

*The new design is available on the latest Skype version (8.29) for Android, iOS, OS X, Linux, Windows 7, 8 & 8.1 operating systems.
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Source: Simplicity and familiarity - updates to the Skype user experience | Skype Blogs

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malware · Sep 3, 2018

Firmware 3.90 with Skype Now Available on Network Update

Fanboy reports that the PSP 3.90 firmware update is now available. The new firmware available only through Network Update will bring Skype for all PSP-2000 models. Here are the official details:

Support for PLAYSTATION Network titles has been expanded.

Skype has been added as a feature under Network. (Only for PSP-2000 series)

Skype requires a PSP headset in order to work properly.

Source: PSP Fanboy

Brink · Sep 3, 2018

What’s new in Skype for Business and take control of updates

With April’s Office update, Lync will become Skype for Business, with a new user interface (UI) in the Windows desktop application. On today’s show, we take a look the new Skype for Business desktop application for Windows. BJ Haberkorn joins Jeremy Chapman to demonstrate what’s new and explain what’s coming. With April’s update from Lync to Skype for Business around the corner, Jeremy also demonstrates how you can control what your users will see.

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On March 16th we announced how you can get ready for Skype for Business and get started with the Skype for Business technical preview. The updated experience will be familiar to both Lync and Skype users, with notable requested updates to improve discoverability of the dial pad, easier access to controls and device selection interfaces. The new Skype for Business also integrates people search with the entire Skype network.

Skype for Business will roll out as an update to Lync on April 14th as part of Office monthly updates. If you are using Lync Online today with Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business Premium or Office 2013, the updated Skype for Business client—inspired by the look and feel of Skype—will be the default user experience and replace the Lync user experience. If you are using Lync Server today, the Lync UI will be the default experience.

The good news is that regardless of whether you are using Lync Online or Lync Server, you have the ability to control when the updated experience is rolled out to your users. There are two ways to do this. First, Office 365 ProPlus and Office 2013 allow you to control when monthly updates are delivered to your users. Second, both the online service and the server now have policy settings to control the user experience using PowerShell. While the settings are slightly different for online and server customers, both are straightforward, and allow you to manage the UI centrally.

Controlling the UI in Lync Online and Skype for Business Online

We demonstrate how this is performed for the online service on the show; once you’re logged into the online service via PowerShell, you can use Grant-CsClientPolicy Cmdlet as shown below, to control the experience:

Disable Skype user interface (UI) for all users:

Grant-CsClientPolicy -PolicyName ClientPolicyDisableSkypeU

Enable Skype UI for all users:

Grant-CsClientPolicy -PolicyName ClientPolicyEnableSkypeUI

These Cmdlets will control the UI presented to all users in your Office 365 or Lync Online tenant. There are more options for controlling the experience at an individual user or group level on TechNet.

Controlling the UI in Lync Server and Skype for Business Server

If you’re running Lync Server and want to roll out the updated Skype for Business UI to your organization, you can use the Set-CsClientPolicy Cmdlet:

Enable Skype UI for all users:

Set-CsClientPolicy -Identity Global -EnableSkypeUI $true

Disable Skype user interface (UI) for all users:

Set-CsClientPolicy -Identity Global -EnableSkypeUI $false

In addition to the options above for selecting between the Skype for Business UI and the Lync UI, we’ve created a number of resources to help with awareness, readiness and adoption. These resources, along with the ability to switch the UI between the two interfaces, will give users the resources they need to be prepared for this change.

What’s next?

In the show we also discuss changes coming to the online experience for users and administrators, upcoming Skype for Business Servers, planned support for enterprise voice and calling in Office 365, new hardware from Polycom and Surface Hub, plus updates coming from Azure ExpressRoute to enhance Skype for Business even further. Watch the show to see Skype for Business in action and hear all the news about what’s coming for administrators.
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Source: What’s new in Skype for Business and how you can take control of updates - Office Blogs

Chino · Sep 3, 2018

Skype Now Available as a Snap for Linux Users

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, announces today that Skype is now available as a snap, the universal Linux app packaging format. Available as of today, the release means that Skype can deliver its communication service to a wider range of Linux users, including millions on Ubuntu. Skype is used by millions of users globally to make free video and voice calls, send files, video and instant messages and to share both special occasions and everyday moments with the people who matter most.

Skype has turned to snaps to ensure its users on Linux, are automatically delivered to its latest version upon release. And with snaps' roll-back feature, whereby applications can revert back to the previous working version in the event of a bug, Skype's developers can ensure a seamless user experience. The Skype snap will work natively on all Linux distributions that support snaps, including Linux Mint, Manjaro, Debian, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, Solus, and Ubuntu. This Skype desktop application is compatible across the wide range of Linux platforms, opening it up to an increased range of devices and to millions of users.

"Skype has been enabling the world's conversations for over ten years," said Jonáš Tajrych, Senior Software Engineer at Skype, Microsoft. "We want to be able to deliver the same high quality experience on Linux as we do on other platforms. Snaps allow us to do just that, by giving us the ability to push the latest features straight to our users, no matter what device or distribution they happen to use."

"We're delighted to welcome Skype to the snaps ecosystem," said Jamie Bennett, VP of Engineering, Devices & IoT at Canonical. "Skype, and the ever growing number of snaps it joins, looks to put the Linux user first, allowing them to enjoy the latest versions upon release and provide a wider range of applications for users to choose from."

Snaps are containerised software packages, designed to work securely within any Linux environment across desktop, the cloud and IoT devices. Thousands of snaps have been launched since 2016, with its appeal coming from the automatic updates and roll-back features, plus security benefits, allowing greater flexibility for developers on the one hand, and a more seamless experience for users on the other.

Skype is available to download as a snap by clicking here, or running snap install --classic skype.

Windows 10: Skype 8.29 update to user experience for simplicity and familiarity

Skype 8.29 update to user experience for simplicity and familiarity

Skype 8.29 update to user experience for simplicity and familiarity

Skype 8.29 update to user experience for simplicity and familiarity

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