Microsoft Disables Skype People Hub on Windows Phone 8
Microsoft Disables Skype People Hub on Windows Phone 8 by UCStrategies Staff
Microsoft announced that the Skype People Hub integration for Windows Phone 8 would be temporarily disabled until the problems with device stability are corrected.
“We have also temporarily disabled the People Hub integration as it was causing issues with device stability,” said Raul Liive, Beta Program Manager at Skype, in a blog post. “We are working with the Windows Phone team to resolve the issue and to enable the integration again in a future release.”
People Hub serves as a multi-level contact book that allows users to call, chat, email, send text messages, and view updates culled from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the like.
With this update, users of Skype People Hub can no longer “initiate Skype calls from outside of the app itself.” Background calls are still possible, and users can still receive calls even when Skype runs in the background.
Previously, with the Skype People Hub integration still in place, the Skype username was detailed alongside the email address, phone number, and other information in the user’s contact list. And now that Skype is no longer integrated with People Hub, users would have to resort to performing workarounds on their smartphones.
Nevertheless, this latest update to Windows Phone 8 is touted to include bug fixes for Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows 8, as well as improvements on the chat keyboard interface with enhanced autocomplete and autocorrect features.
Issues fixed from the previous release include call reliability, the incorrect order of chat messages which are now arranged by time stamp, the dependability of call and chat notifications appearing when Skype is closed, and corrections on some webpage links.
In addition, Windows Live Messenger buddies now have an option to allow toast notifications and are finally labeled in the People list.
The existence of the People Hub software bug raises the issue of inadequate testing performed by Microsoft and other software companies before they release updates to consumers. It seems that numerous software companies are taking the approach of using the consumer marketplace as the beta-testing site for their products. The rigorously competitive environment of marketing apps and smartphones must have been driving software companies to release their products ahead of their competitors, placing additional pressure on the software testing phase. “Users who want reliable apps on their smartphones will be better served to wait for de facto beta testers to complete their work first,” concluded Christopher Mohr of TechZone360. (KOM) Link. Link. Link.