Back in 2010, a year before being acquired by Microsoft, Skype launched the Skype for Smart TV app. The premise for the service is simple. Instead of using a traditional computer or a mobile device, users could use their Smart TVs to talk face-to-face with their contacts using Skype's popular service. Unfortunately, the service was ultimately unable to fully live up to its potential, and the company has finally announced that it is ending its Smart TV app support later this year.
The service was originally designed to invoke the feeling of speaking to someone in the same room. However, what was great in theory ultimately proved not as good in actual practice. Through the years that it was offered, Skype was downloaded tens of millions of times on Smart TVs, but a very small fraction of that number actually uses the service.
In a sense, the Skype for Smart TV service never really took off. For one, a lot of users felt that the service was quite inconvenient, especially since the video feature of the app required a dedicated webcam that is completely different from the conventional camera used on a PC or Mac.
Apart from the inconvenience factor, a number of users were quite uncomfortable with the prospect of having a video camera positioned directly into their living rooms because of, unsurprisingly, privacy concerns.
Thus, six years down the road, Skype has finally decided to pull the plug on its Smart TV app. The company announced on its Support Page that its support for the app will stop after June 2016. The primary reason behind the decision, unsurprisingly, is the prevalence of mobile devices.
"Since 2010, Skype has delivered a great calling experience in the living room in partnership with several TV manufacturers. But over the years, users have changed the way they use Skype, with the majority accessing it from a mobile device - including when in the living room," the announcement read.
In a lot of ways, Skype's decision does make a lot of sense. After all, mobile devices have become extremely popular over the years, with a significant amount of online transactions and operations being initiated through mobile devices. Just last year, social media giant Facebook announced that a huge number of its user base access the service exclusively through a mobile device.
Plus, Skype's focus on mobile devices comes just in time. After all, its competitors such as Facebook's Messenger, Google's Hangouts and Apple's Facetime have gotten better over the years. Indeed, Skype has quite a lot of catching up to do.
