Skype gets cozy with Android Wear, brings calls and chats to your wrist
Dan Thorp-Lancaster / Android Central :
Context & Ripple Effects
Skype's wrist play lands mid-way through a deliberate multi-surface expansion: months earlier it added offline photo sharing and multitasking during calls on Android, and a year later it would push screen sharing and a simplified call redesign onto iOS and Android. Each step moves the service off the desktop and into whatever device is nearest.
The timing is equally about Google's side of the ledger. In early 2015, reporting suggested Android Wear was close to working with the iPhone via a companion app, and Hyundai was building a Wear app to start, lock, and locate cars — evidence Google was courting big brands to prove the watch was a real control surface, not a notifications screen.
First-order effects
- Skype users with Wear watches can now take calls and reply to chats without pulling out their phones, cutting Microsoft's dependence on the handset as the only Skype endpoint.
- Microsoft gains presence on Google's wearable at essentially no incremental cost, since the feature rides on existing Android accounts rather than a new product.
Second-order effects
- Google gets another flagship communications brand validating Android Wear, strengthening the case for its iPhone-compatibility push and for recruiting more third-party developers like Hyundai.
- Rival messaging services face pressure to ship their own watch experiences, since being absent from the wrist cedes quick-reply moments to whoever is installed there.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — platforms adding gestures, speakers, and voice input within months — smartwatches consolidate as glance-and-respond endpoints for communication apps, with platform owners competing on which major services they can host first.
The trend: Smartwatch platforms are graduating from notification mirrors to genuine communication surfaces, as major messaging brands race to be present wherever a user's wrist is.