Skype 6 for Android adds floating action button and improved messaging in latest redesign

It was only a month ago that Skype for Android was hit with a slight visual refresh, and today Microsoft is pushing out a much bigger redesign to the messaging app that it says was inspired by Google’s Material design. Skype 6.0 for Android replaces the custom action bar along the bottom of the app with a new floating action button that should be familiar to other modern Android apps. The action button ties in shortcuts to video messages, video calls, voice calls, and conversation chats.Aside from the visual refresh, Skype 6 for Android also improves on both search features and messaging. Microsoft says the newly upgraded search ability is now able to find contacts and conversations quicker. As for Skype’s chatting capabilities, Skype says it has improved how it handles marking messages read or unread so knowing how many unread messages are available should be better.

Skype 6.0 for Android is available for free on the Play Store and should be rolling out shortly.