Microsoft Teases Skype Update With New Button Gradients, Meet Now Innovations

Microsoft on Monday unveiled its latest update on Skype featuring new button gradients, Meet Now and more innovations.

In a blog post published on Sept. 27, the software giant discussed details on the changes it said will roll out in the next few months. While some Skype users could encounter the added features now, some may have to wait for the changes to take place.

One notable improvement is the new colorful themes. Users will get to enjoy a wider variety of vibrantly colorful button gradients also making it easier for those who do not have the avatars to tell their chats apart, The Verge reported.

Skype will have the Fluent Design icons across the application while Skype mobile users will see the improvement on their side panel. Microsoft also added animated backgrounds, call recording capability, live subtitles and more.

Every participant during a call will be shown in a grid. Participants that do not have their videos on will be displayed as well. This means that during an active call, the first person’s video will show up side by side along with all participants’ videos in the main interface.

Skype users will also have the option to choose what will appear on their screens during a call. They may choose from Together mode, speaker view, large gallery view, grid view, content view and the option to show only callers with enabled video.

As Skype users' connectivity environments vary from one another, they have the option to disable the video stream or hide the audio-only participants.

Audio-only participants may opt to choose one from the background replacement images so that they do not appear blank on the screen, Engadget reported.

Those who do not have the Skype app on their devices may get to enjoy a quick call using Meet Now, and they don't need to sign up and create a password. All they need to do is click the link to connect online and join the call as a guest.

Microsoft said it will commit to ensuring that all future Skype changes will support all browsers. The tech giant also claimed that it is making the Skype for Android key scenarios increase by 2,000 percent in performance while working on 30 percent improvement on Skype desktop versions.