Microsoft: Skype support for Smart TV interrupted since June
Microsoft announced the discontinuation of support for Skype app optimized for use with the Smart TV. The service had been introduced at CES 2010, but times change and with them, the habits of Skype users are increasingly turning to the smartphone, also in the living room.
Microsoft has confirmed the decision to stop the app support Skype optimized for use with the Smart TV. This is confirmed by a post published in the official support forum.
As of June 2016, the service announced at CES 2010, and in Microsoft intended it to improve the usability of Skype in the home, it will officially no longer be supported. This means that you can no longer create new accounts, reset passwords, and that will not be subject to any additional app updates.
The individual manufacturers of Smart TV will be free to choose to remove or not the client from the TV software, but this will have no effect on Microsoft’s decision: the app will remain deprived of official support. Among the producers concerned include brands such as Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba and Philips.
The reasons that led to the decision issued by Microsoft are substantially related to user habits that, over the years, have changed the way they use Skype. Specifically, Microsoft has found that more and more users use the video call service via mobile devices, even when they are inside the comfort of your sofa in front of the TV.
Easy to understand that starting from that premise continue to carry forward the development of an app recently used results in an unnecessary waste of resources.
Skype for TV could continue to be used even after the month of June, as Microsoft does not oblige manufacturers to remove the app., it cannot determine how long, after the announced date, the service will remain so.
Microsoft may change the backend making it is unusable. In substantive terms, what looked like a futuristic feature – to use a large screen to use one of the most popular services for free video calls – failed to make inroads among users who feel more comfortable to use smartphones and tablets to achieve the same purpose, in a perhaps not as spectacular, but for several more practical aspects.
For more information on Microsoft’s actions related to Smart TV, please refer to the official support site.
