Microsoft Launches ‘Made For India’ Skype Lite App

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today unveiled Skype Lite, a lighter version of Skype. The app is specifically made for India to work in low bandwidth and devices that have limited storage space. In India where connectivity is still an issue, Skype Lite is just 13MB in size while still offering all the functions of the main app. Skype Lite is an all-in-one app and has functionalities such as integrated calling and SMS by which a user can make it the default calling and messaging app. Microsoft claims, the app uses less data to send messages, voice or video calls and it is will work on phones with even 2G data.

One of the key features launched with Skype Lite is Bots. The feature allows third party software vendors to integrate their artificial intelligence apps that can respond to queries. Skype will also bring Aadhaar integration to the app by June 2017. With this integration, Skype users will be able to authenticate the identity of unknown callers in a variety of situations where identification verification is required. Skype Lite is also fully localized and supports seven Indian languages — Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.

Along with Skype Lite, Microsoft has also unveiled LinkedIn Lite, a tool that will help people connect from low connectivity zones in the country.