Microsoft announced Skype calling and chatting in Office Online and OneDrive. It’s somewhat surprising that this integration wasn’t already available, but here it is now.
“This creates a natural, collaborative experience where you can co-edit a document right alongside a chat so that the chat is in context of the topic being discussed,” says Microsoft. “Best of all, this chat history stays connected to the document the next time you open it to help you pick right up where you left off.”
Skype voice and video integration was announced in October.
“As we referenced in the Office blog, you can enrich your Office Online collaboration experience (in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) with Skype instant messaging integration so that you and your team can send instant messages or call each other, while simultaneously editing the same document,” the company says. “Similarly, you can now collaborate over Skype on your documents stored online in OneDrive—call or chat with a friend when viewing contents of online folders, or while co-editing directly in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote in Office Online.”
Outlook.com Skype integration is now available to all users.
Last month, Skype got group video calling for mobile and tablets.
Images via Microsoft