As promised, Skype today launched is new iPhone app, which was rebuilt from the ground up, and aligns itself with the look of versions for other platforms.
Skype 5 for iPhone not only sports an updated interface with Windows Phone-style swiping between pages, animated transitions, and tiles for favorite contacts, but it's up to five times faster than the previous app, Skype Product Marketing Manager Eric Lin told PCMag.
Another newly added capability is group text chat, which can be initiated from any of the app's main pages and can include photo sharing and video messages.
Users get more control over push and in-app notifications in version 5, and the system has been improved so as not to duplicate new message or call notifications on multiple devices using the same Skype account.
"Everything we've done, we've done because of our users," Lin said. "We were laser focused on performance and making the app more stable, faster, and simpler." He also said that the team reads 100 percent of store feedback, and indicated that the team wasn't finished improving the app, with features such as group audio in the offing.
To read about Skype 5 for iPhone's new features, visit the company's page for the app, download it from the iTunes App Store, view the video below, and read PCMag's soon-to-be-posted review.