Skype will be baked into Windows 8.1, featured ‘front-and-center’ on the Start Screen

Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h (show all) Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.

Microsoft will feature Skype ‘front-and-center’ in the upcoming Windows 8.1 release.

Baked into the core of the latest Windows update, you’ll basically see Skype as soon as you switch your PC on, so no downloads will be required.

Given the global popularity of Skype, it’s perhaps not that surprising that Microsoft would seek to make the VoIP service the “default communications experience on Windows 8.1”, as the company put it.