UPDATED 12:26 EDT / JUNE 01 2017

APPS

With new Skype, Microsoft is copying Snapchat too

Microsoft Corp. has just given Skype a major facelift, and the 13-year-old video chat app is starting to look an awful lot like Snapchat.

The Skype app has been completely redesigned with a hipper, more colorful interface, and Microsoft has added a few features aimed at making Skype more like a social network than simply a video chat program.

One of these new features is Highlights, which allows users to create highlight reels of their day by combining their photos and videos, much like Snapchat Stories. Users can react to highlights with emoticons or jump in to add their own comments or pictures. The Skype team said in a blog post that Highlights allow users to be “free to share in more expressive ways with your closest friends, family and groups.”

Skype also has a new Find feature that ties directly into a number of chat bots and add-ins, making it “infinitely searchable,” according to the company. For example, users can find concert tickets, look up recipes or check flight prices using various chat bots. Add-ins also allow users to find and share media and other content from sources like YouTube or Giphy. The Skype team said that this experience is “just the start,” as new bots and add-ins are being added all the time.

The update seems to be an effort by Microsoft to help Skype catch up to newer rivals such as Snapchat. Skype may have been one of the first video chat programs to gain popularity after it was released all the way back in 2003, but the app faces more competition now than ever before, especially when it comes to younger users.

Microsoft is not the first major tech company to try to go head to head with Snapchat. Over the last year, Facebook Inc. has been steadily adding features to Instagram to put it in direct competition with Snapchat, and with more than 200 million daily active users, Facebook seems to be doing something right. Investors in Snap Inc., which went public earlier this year, asked company Chief Executive Evan Spiegel if he was concerned about rivals copying Snapchat’s features, but he responded that “just because Yahoo has a search box, it doesn’t mean they’re Google.”

The new Skype update is coming to Android first and will be rolled out over the next few weeks. The Skype team said that an iOS version of the update will be coming soon, and Windows and Mac versions will roll out in the next few months.

Photo: Microsoft

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