Microsoft announces Skype Lite with Adhaar integration for India

In a bid to reach Indian population with slow mobile data speeds, Microsoft today announced a lighter version of its video and audio calling app, Skype called Skype Lite. The new app is designed for low-end Android phones and to be more data friendly.

The Skype Lite is 'Made for India', and was developed in Microsoft's Hyderabad development centre. Microsoft claims that app works perfectly on low bandwidth network like 2G and 3G.

The app weighs just 13MB and will consume less cellular data, but offer all the function of the main app including instant messaging along with audio and video calling. Microsoft says it adjusted algorithms and bitrate to ensure quality is maintained, while keeping it data friendly.

The lightweight app supports seven Indian languages - Gujrati, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, and comes with functionalities like integrated calling and SMS, by which users can set Skype Lite as their default calling and messaging app.

The app also comes with data friendly features like mobile data and WiFi usage monitoring. There's also a dark theme for the new app, which saves battery and makes it easier to type messages in the dark, without having much strain in the eyes. The app also has SMS/Spam/ promotional texts filtering and India focused Skype Bots, which can share cricket scores, horoscopes, weather and more.

Furthermore Skype Lite comes with Adhaar integration, that will be rolled out by January 2017. This will allow Skype users to verify the identity of unknown callers in a variety of situations, where identification and verification is required including job interviews, goods and property sale.

Skype Lite will be available only for Android devices and can be downloaded from Google Play Store. 

Via 1 | 2

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative