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You may soon make calls, send texts, manage contacts through a Skype app

Lulu Chang
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Skype
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Skype wants to be your smartphone’s new control center.

A couple days ago, the video-calling platform quietly released a new app it’s calling Skype Mingo, and it’s much more than a tool to help you have face-to-face conversations with friends halfway around the world. Rather, it’s an attempt to turn Skype into your default app for all your major smartphone functions, including calling, texting, and contact management.

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According to Google Play, Skype Mingo is still in its alpha testing phase, as the video-chat tool begins to double down on its attempts to bring SMS relay (the ability for Windows 10 users to send SMS through their PCs) to Android users, MSPoweruser reports. While SMS relay has yet to be made available in Mingo, the app does make Skype the default for communication on your phone — that means you can make and receive phone calls, send and receive SMS messages, and organize your contacts, all through Skype.

The app features a familiar interface — one that looks an awful lot like Skype (without totally being Skype). It features a blue-and-white color palette, and of course, also boasts all of Skype’s functionality, including its various chatbots. That means you can find flights via Skyscanner or Hipmunk, tickets via Stubhub, and nearby hot spots via Foursquare.

Moreover, Microsoft notes in the Google Play store, Mingo is “small and fast,” and “optimized for speed,” and gives users “a rich set of features in a small, easy-to-manage package.”

Microsoft has remained relatively tight-lipped on Mingo’s future, with a spokesperson noting, “As part of the ongoing improvements to deliver the best Skype experience possible, we are always innovating and occasionally test out new features and functionality. We have nothing more to share at this time.”

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