Tango to beat Skype in bringing video calls to Windows Phone

Let’s get the big pieces out-of-the-way: Tango.me is leveraging the Mango update for Windows Phone to bring its service to the platform. Microsoft helped them with the process. The company will beat Skype in bringing video calls to the mobile line.

Skype at this time is remaining mum as to how far along its integration into the now year-old Windows Phone platform is on the way to launch. Microsoft’s purchase of Skype recently cleared all regulatory hurdles and is for all intents and purposes, complete.

One important thing to note: Tango is also the name of a forthcoming Windows Phone update, which will follow Mango, and land before Apollo. The video calling service called Tango is something completely different. Now you know. Don’t get mixed up.

According to an interview conducted by Forbes, Tango worked rather closely with Microsoft not only on its own application, but also on the Mango update itself: “The two companies collaborated closely over the past few months. Tango helped Microsoft ‘work out some kinks’ in Mango […] In turn, Microsoft gave Tango advice on user interface design and technical issues.” This surprised the company, given the new situation that Microsoft finds itself in: “We were thinking, after this big [Skype] acquisition, there was no chance they would help us[, so k]udos to them.”

Why would Microsoft work with Tango, with Skype on the horizon? According to Tango “[we] think Microsoft sees video-calling as a killer app for holiday season [handset] sales.” In other words, this might not be open-platform altruism by Microsoft, but instead a careful move to ensure that its feature set is in order.

Whichever is correct, Tango should land on the 7th of November, giving the company plenty of time to ramp up its cross-platform service on one more mobile line before the new year dawns.