Microsoft Integrates Skype Into Additional Services

Skype, the communication service from Microsoft that’s simultaneously loved and loathed as it makes it easy to communicate with anyone around the globe, but also has been plagued with bugs that result in features being broken or having multiple instances of the app ringing perpetually after answering a call. Despite these issues, the platform has persisted and is one of the most widely used communication tools on the planet, and today its footprint is expanding.

Microsoft has announced that Office Online and OneDrive now have Skype integrated into those services, much like Outlook.com.

Starting today, you can use the communication platform inside of Office Online and OneDrive, which makes collaborating on a document easier. Conveniently, the chat history stays connected to the document, so the next time you open the file, your chat history is preserved.

This expansion of Skype is a natural evolution of the product that Microsoft is positioning as the best way to communicate with friends, family and co-workers. It was reported that the company has passed on the option to buy Slack, a startup that is quickly growing in the communication space that competes with Skype, and instead is opting to invest more into the services it already owns.

This new integration is rolling out now, and if you don’t see it on your account, it should be showing up soon; you can read the announcement post on Microsoft’s official blog.