Since a lot more people now log on to Skype through their mobile device rather than the desktop, it would now be more natural for the free voice-over-IP and instant messaging app to change how they find your friends. The new Skype 5.0 for Android now has a feature that will make it easier for you to search through the 300 million users and find people that you know.
The new feature works just like other messaging apps have been doing for some time now; Skype will now connect to your Android device’s address book and automatically add the people there who are already using the app. But before that, after you’ve already updated your app to the latest version, it will ask you to verify your mobile number and then the app will look through your contacts and add them to your Skype contact list. As new friends start using app, they will be added to your list as well.
But don’t worry if you actually don’t want this feature. You have the option whether or not to automatically add your address book contacts (just in case you were hiding from one or two of them) and just add the ones you want manually. Your mobile number will also not be part of your public profile, and you can even change or deactivate the number associated with your Skype account.
If you use your Microsoft account to sign in to Skype, your address books from other Microsoft services will also be scanned and contacts added to your list. So if you’re using Outlook or Windows 8, that’s more contacts for you. However, other mobile platforms are yet to be upgraded to this new feature, so for now, Android users are ahead of the game.
SOURCE: Skype
