An unfortunate casualty of the development process, Skype integration for Outlook.com was temporarily removed by Microsoft as it worked on improving various aspects of the site in its now months-old beta.
Users on the normal site were unaffected, of course, but the lack of Skype was a pain for many beta testers, making it one of the most requested features on the Outlook Feedback site. Microsoft seems to have finally heard their wailing, and with most of the foundational work on the UI and other systems complete, the company is now turning its eye toward many of the quality-of-life improvements users have been looking for.
The Skype icon is back on the top right of the site, and allows you to continue your Skype conversations with ease. Unfortunately, since this is just the start of re-integrating the messaging app, a lot of the functionality you might normally expect is missing. For one, voice and video chats aren't available anymore, and you can only chat with Skype contacts. Changing your status is also currently impossible. The only improvement over the previous iteration of Skype on the site is that you can now start multiple chats simultaneously.
If you're feeling like that's more good news than bad, Microsoft did promise that this is the start of things to come. "More improvements to the Skype integration will come in the future, but for now, please enjoy the upgraded Skype chat experience,” reads the company's website.
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