Microsoft first showed off Skype‘s integration into Outlook.com in April of this year but it was a very limited roll out. Today, the company has released Skype for Outlook.com in six countries: USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Brazil. There’s no word when the feature will roll out to the rest of the world but Microsoft does plan to for the feature to go worldwide.
With Skype for Outlook.com, users can use Skype within the browser with just a simple plugin. There would no longer be a need to download a dedicated desktop Skype client. The plugin is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
Microsoft is putting the entire company’s weight behind its Skype messaging program. The company is integrating it directly into Windows 8.1, which means the “Messaging” app found in Windows 8 will disappear. The company has also been slowly integrating Skype into its other programs. This is a necessary move for Microsoft as the company struggles to become more cloud-based than its traditional desktop oriented platforms.