14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft recently introduced Skype chat in Outlook.com, providing its users with the possibility to chat with friends and other contacts without leaving the email interface.
It turns out however that many users are actually experiencing problems when trying to launch Skype in Outlook.com, as the application cannot be found regardless of the browser version they are running.
A post on Microsoft’s Community forums confirms that this is actually a widespread issue, with several users confirming that the problem persists on Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and even IE.
“It turned out that I can use my Skype and Facebook account to chat with people through Skydrive.com, but if I open the Outlook.com website, I cannot use the chat there...” one user explained in a post.
“It happens also if I use the same browser window, and also happens if I am using them separately. Also, it turned out that the messaging is not working (or rarely works) on my WP8 handset. I can only see the same conversations on my phone as it is on outlook.com.”
Microsoft staff suggested several workarounds, but none seem to be fixing the issues, which makes Skype impossible to access from the Outlook.com interface.
“I tried: different browsers, different computers, changed language to EN-UK, EN-US and other languages, tried to unlink my Skype account from Microsoft ID and linked it back, tried to update my Skype profile as well. No results: Skype chat works just fine on skydrive.com, but not on outlook.com (live.com),” one of the users who tried the workarounds posted.
At this point, there’s no fix that will address the issue once and for all so, in case you’re experiencing similar problems, you have no other option than to wait until Microsoft sorts this out and releases an update for Outlook.com users who can’t see the Skype chat.