Skype launches its redesigned Windows app out of preview

Skype today launched its redesigned Windows app, following a preview period that lasted just under three weeks. You can download the latest version now directly from Skype.com.

When the new Mac app and preview of the Windows app arrived earlier this month, the Microsoft-owned company said the new look was supposed to make it easier to chat and share. At the same time, the hope was to bring the desktop apps more inline with Skype for mobile, so users could expect a similar experience regardless of the device they were using.

Let’s recap the new features. You can expect to see a thumbnail picture for each of your contacts, a new bubble-style chat design, as well as the same icons for chat, video calls, and audio calls across all platforms.

The chat experience has gained inline photos (no need to open them up), more spacing between contacts and chats, message previews for unread chats, plus a new side-by-side design for sending IMs while on a call. File sharing has also been improved: File types like Office documents and PDFs are now marked by file icons to make it easier to find them when you’re going through your chat history.

The only feature Skype wanted to highlight today was the larger emoticons:

In its last announcement, Skype said that “several exciting improvements and new features” are on the way, but it didn’t elaborate today. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out what the company has up its sleeves.