Skype Version 4 For Windows

Skype version 4 for Windows was released on the 4th of Febuary 2009. Version 4 presented a new UI layout never seen before in any stable Skype release - changes such as a horizontal rectangular layout have been introduced, a change to the old IM client like vertical rectangular window. But, inside the app, not a lot has changed.

Seeing as this quite the "cosmetic" release, i'm going to poke around at the features I like and dislike about the new Skype UI - and how it affects me as a casual user of the app.

The New Theme

The Skype dev team decided that it would make Skype better if they were to replace the default title bar with one that they had made. The new title bar includes a button to detatch the skype window from the call window, but obviously didn't code it very well as Skype has a tendency to minimize random stuff. Every time I tried to play a game on Steam with Skype running it minimized it, and the only fix was reverting back to the "Classic Windows" theme in the settings. That feature, in my opinion, is shit, unnecessary and an incy bit annoying.

The New Home Screen

In my opinion, the new home screen is a bit of an overkill. You have your contacts on the left, and a large mass of space that contains an arrow and the word "Contacts" pointing to them. (Screenshot.) It's both wasteful and patronizing, but I have to say, I do prefer it to the IM client like vertical rectangular view - even if all of the space isn't used.

Calling

The calling screen has impoved loads. It looks a lot sleeker, and displays more information about your current call that it used to. You can view your contact list at the same time, and easily detach the call from the contacts list to get a more compact view.

Call volume and stuff is easier to get to, and the hold call and sound settings are a context menu away.

Text Chat

The IM features of Skype can now be found in the call window as see in the screenshot above, along with a record of when the call was initiated and ended. I think this is easier - but I rarely use Skype IM favoring other dedicated apps like Windows Live Messenger.

So, there you have it. Skype 4 in a nutshell. It's definitely better than any previous release, however little seems to have changed feature-wise - this was basically a redesign in software terms.