At its event called Future Decoded, organized in Mumbai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a new app called Skype Lite. The app is basically a Skype client designed for use in low-powered Android Devices and use in areas with limited connectivity.
The new app is among the smallest Video Chatting applications sizing at only 13 MB of storage, and it will support nine Indian regional languages. Apart from that, the app will also support chatbots for connected services. The app will also support SMS messages and will include built-in tools to track data usages on mobile networks.
Microsoft’s Slack Lite is heavily focused on Indian users. The company will use India Stack, which is a group of APIs that allow Indian Government and business to make their services available for Indian Citizens, especially tapping into the Aadhar Scheme.
Aadhar is an Indian Unique numerical UD which can be sued to verify a user’s identity. Microsoft demonstrated how it could be used to enable companies to verify a candidate on an interview with their UID.
How does Aadhar Verification work?
Once both parties are on the app and someone requests Aadhar verification, the second party will have to enter it’s 12 digit Aadhar number. Once submitted, an OTP will be sent to the number associated with the Aadhar ID, and if verified, the first party will be able to see verified ID information on its screen. When a chat is disconnected, all Aadhar related data will be removed from devices.
Skype Lite is a very similar approach as Messenger Lite, a smaller version of Messenger that Facebook made for low-end devices, it will be interesting to see how Skype Lite’s unique features perform in the real world.
The app is not live on Google Play yet, but it should be up soon. What do you think about Skype Lite? Share it with others in the comments below.
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