Microsoft pulls the plug on Modern UI version Skype

Microsoft is discontinuing the Modern UI version of Skype. Users of that variant will receive an update to the regular desktop version next month. It doesn’t make sense to create two different Skype applications for Windows 10, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft will retire the variant with Modern UI from July 7. From then on, users will get the update that installs the desktop version of Skype. Microsoft focuses Windows 10 more on desktops and less on the Modern UI with tiles and full-screen apps. The only exception are Windows RT users, for whom nothing changes. Desktop applications don’t run on Windows RT, making that impossible.

The Modern UI version of Skype with live tile and fullscreen video calling came out in 2012, along with Windows 8. Despite that release, most people continued to use Skype via the desktop version. Microsoft does not state whether it will update the new variant via the Windows Store, but it is obvious, because Microsoft wants to encourage developers to publish desktop applications via its download store. Skype has been owned by Microsoft for several years now.