Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced several new products designed for India, and, to a significant degree, also made in India – a forceful move that suggests the company is trying to go way beyond its traditional Windows and Office users and build a substantially broader audience in the country. Also, the new Skype Lite app comes with fresh new features, which are not even available on the regular version of the app. The “Made for India” app will enable Android phone users to make calls and exchange instant chat messages with other Skype users, free of cost. Skype lite, which went live on the Google Play store earlier in the day, was developed by Microsoft’s Research lab in Hyderabad and is now on available for Android smartphones in India. Microsoft began building out its Skype Bot platform past year and opened it up to developers so they could create their own conversational bots for use with Skype’s messaging service.
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Built using Microsoft’s Indian developers, the app is also preparing the country for an AI-powered future with a variety of nation-specific chatbots.
To get started, you need to download the app from the Google Play Store. It also uses less data and battery power, thanks to compression of photos and video files.
Skype Lite isn’t available at the time of writing, but it should come online today in India at this link. It has also launched Project Sangam, which pairs Microsoft-owned LinkedIn with India’s ID system, Aadhar, to connect people with jobs and training. Once the training is completed, Microsoft will update their profiles for employers to shortlist and hire the skilled workers. The app targets Indian users facing challenges of poor connectivity, bandwidth issues and limitations of low, mid-end handsets.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Nadella said that the era of cloud will further increase growth opportunities in different sectors in India.
Nadella was quite appreciative of the progress on Aadhaar, and said that “India Stack” is driving a lot of innovation at Microsoft. This includes SMS filtering, mobile data and Wi-Fi usage monitoring and India focused Skype Bots, which is a good retention from the original app.
“We in fact are going to launch Skype with Aadhaar authentication”.
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Project Sangam will allow users to register using their Aadhaar identity ensuring lifelong access to the platform. Users will be able to converse with the bots through Skype Lite in the same way that they would in the traditional Skype app. With apps like these, it makes the deal all the more sweeter.
