Microsoft is bringing SMS Relay to Android users

Whether on Android or on Windows phones. users who don’t have an iPhone share the desire to have a unified messaging service in the vein of iMessage. While Google is working on developing RCS (something Microsoft also supports) for it phones, Microsoft is working on turning Skype into that all in one chat client for users.

Microsoft’s Skype now acts as an iMessage like app for Windows phones, complete with blue and green bubbles. Users can quickly use Skype to SMS users on any platform, as well as message users via the Skype client on Windows 10 PCs. Clearly, this isn’t the best of solutions for the mass-market as just over 8 in 10 users are using Android phones, which means that most users would prefer an app that synced with Android phones.

To that end, Microsoft has announced on its Skype Blog that it will bring SMS relay to Android devices in the future. This means that users of Android phones like the Pixel, Galaxy S7 and more will be able to use Microsoft’s own Skype app as an SMS app as well as send and receive texts on their PCs.

That’s not all Microsoft announced for the Skype app for Windows 10. Now, users who use Skype will be able to message their counterparts on the Skype for Business app.

To get started, tap on Contacts and enter in a contact’s work email address in “Search Skype”. If that person is on Skype for Business, you should see their work email address appear in the search results. Select the email, then send them a message, and they will get a contact request via Skype for Business. Once the contact has accepted your request, you can view their status, instant message, and have one-on-one video or audio calls

Microsoft’s has been working on turning Skype into its all in one messaging service for Windows users, and it is hard to disagree that the service isn’t improving by leaps and bounds – now all it needs are more users.

[appbox windowsstore 9wzdncrfj364]