“Skype is used by millions of users globally to make free video and voice calls, send files, video and instant messages and to share both special occasions and everyday moments with the people who matter most. Skype has turned to snaps to ensure its users on Linux, are automatically delivered to its latest version upon release. And with snaps’ roll-back feature, whereby applications can revert back to the previous working version in the event of a bug, Skype’s developers can ensure a seamless user experience,” says Canonical. The Ubuntu-maker further added, “The Skype snap will work natively on all Linux distributions that support snaps, including Linux Mint, Manjaro, Debian, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, Solus, and Ubuntu. This Skype desktop application is compatible across the wide range of Linux platforms, opening it up to an increased range of devices and to millions of users.” With Skype being available as a snap, will allow easy installation of Skype in popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, and keep it updated. Skype joins the current list of snap packages such as the music program ‘Spotify’, and the team instant messaging client ‘Slack’ for its Linux desktop client. Jonáš Tajrych, Senior Software Engineer at Skype, Microsoft said, “Skype has been enabling the world’s conversations for over ten years. We want to be able to deliver the same high quality experience on Linux as we do on other platforms. Snaps allow us to do just that, by giving us the ability to push the latest features straight to our users, no matter what device or distribution they happen to use.” Launched in 2016, Snap was created by Canonical as a universal Linux package that works natively on all Linux distributions that support snap packaging. Snaps are containerised software designed to work on any Linux platform, whether that be on desktop, the cloud, or IoT devices. It offers additional benefits to developers including automatic software updates. It also has roll-back features, which means that if anything goes wrong with the latest version, users can easily revert back to the previous working configuration. This allows Skype’s developers to ensure a seamless user experience. Jamie Bennett, VP of Engineering, Devices & IoT at Canonical said, “We’re delighted to welcome Skype to the snaps ecosystem. Skype, and the ever growing number of snaps it joins, looks to put the Linux user first, allowing them to enjoy the latest versions upon release and provide a wider range of application for users to choose from.” If you wish to install the Skype Snap on your Linux box, you can go to the Snapcraft.io website and download it. Alternatively, you can install it by typing “snap install –classic skype” without quotes from your Linux desktop shell.
