The popular video calling app, Skype won’t run on some older Android version based devices after October this year. However, after that you can run its web version directly from your browser.
“Recently, we’ve begun to transition from a peer-to-peer based architecture to a cloud based one. This has allowed us to introduce innovative new features such as video calling, and improved account security to the most recent versions of Skype. As a result, some platforms will no longer be supported after October 2016, but you can still use Skype for Web directly in your browser,” Skype revealed in its support page.
As per information available, the latest Skype will not run on devices running on below Android 4.0.3. Similarly, it won’t run on Windows 8.1 and below devices.
In a blog post, Skype chief chief Gurdeep Pall said, “Recently, we have been focused on transitioning Skype from peer-to-peer to a modern, mobile friendly cloud architecture. By moving to the cloud we have been able to significantly improve existing features like file sharing and video messaging, and launch new features like mobile group video calling, Skype Translator and Skype Bots to name just a few.”
“The pace of change in our industry means that the devices and operating systems used by the majority of people shifts with time. Our commitment to deliver the best possible cross-platform experiences requires that we continually assess when it’s time to increase our focus on the platforms of the future. Sometimes this means that we must end support for some devices and operating systems,” he further added.
Pall said that the focus is now on the newly released lighter, faster and more responsive UWP App for Windows 10, Skype for iPhone, iPad and Android as well as a web-based native version of Skype for other supported platforms like previous Windows operating Systems, Mac and Linux, which will benefit from the latest ORTC or WebRTC technology that the company is working on for the last year.