Microsoft makes advances in fixing Skype chat

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am not a fan of Skype as an instant-messaging/chat client.

I'm not the only one (by far) who feels this way. And the folks on the Skype team know there are a lot of us former Windows Live Messenger users who are none too happy that Microsoft forced us off the service last year before Skype IM was really cooked.

The Skype team committed to fix the shortcomings in Skype overall, and Skype IM in particular. On February 13, the team provided a progress report on how things are going on that front.

"We know that as users have started using Skype on multiple devices, they’ve had difficulty keeping conversations in sync, or they’ve missed messages and seen 'read' messages on one device that are still marked as 'unread' on another. We’ve been working hard to solve these issues while adding other experiences to make an improved Skype chat," according to a February 13 post on the Skype Big Blog.

Microsoft has been rolling out updates to its various Skype clients over recent weeks that are designed to help alleviate these syncing issues, officials said. Skype also has added push notifications so users will know when they have new chat messages, officials said.

But it won't be until some time "in the coming months" that Skype users will only receive notifications on the devices they are actively using, and additional notifications won't pile up on other devices. Also some time in the coming months, users' favorites contact list will be able to roam and sync across their Skype-enabled devices.

The team is continuing to work on overall performance, battery life, startup time and resume time improvements, according to the post.

"It’s now faster to return to the app when it’s not running in the foreground as well as faster to start up, allowing you to chat all day every day without the fear of unwanted battery drain," officials said.