Last month, Microsoft announced it would be shutting down the desktop version of Skype 7.0, otherwise known as classic Skype, in September and transitioning users and businesses to the redesigned Skype 8.0. Following what the company describes as “customer feedback,” classic Skype will be sticking around for “some time” to “bring all the features you’ve asked for into Skype 8,” per Windows blog Thurrott. Skype 8 was first unveiled as a mobile redesign last year, inspired by trends set by Facebook and Snapchat, and it was widely disliked at the time as well.
The announcement was made by a Microsoft representative on the initial forum post announcing classic Skype’s discontinuation, which had filled with complaints from dedicated users and critics of the new direction of the product. Some users were concerned over product changes like Skype 8’s new all-in-one approach that lacked simultaneous chat window support, and there seemed to be broad distaste for the user interface overhaul and other visual tweaks Microsoft had made to the product to keep it in line with its chat-focused mobile redesign. There are legitimate complaints about the new Skype that may get more readily addressed now that Microsoft is actively listening to feedback and forestalling a discontinuation of Skype 7.
