[sc:mobile-category ]A few weeks ago Microsoft rolled out an upgrade (v2.8.0.84) to Skype for Windows Phone 8 and well, lets just say it didn’t go well.
Around the same time several other apps on my phone had updates, including Facebook, Lync, WhatsApp and Netflix). Shortly there after, at least one a day, when unlocking the phone I would be greeted with the standard “Resuming…” screen. Hitting the home or back button didn’t do anything and bringing up the task list just showed the current app was the start screen. Trying to switch to another app simply brought the resuming screen back. Leaving it for a few minutes didn’t do anything and the only option that worked was to restart the phone.
At first I thought it might be The Weather network as it seemed to happen when I had been using it and then locked the phone. However I quickly found that not to be the case as the task list clearly showed the current task to be the start screen.
My next step was to start removing apps that were running in the background, the first one I pulled was Facebook. After several more removals, I found Skype to be the offending app. Removing it has since returned stability to my phone and I haven’t added it back yet.
I’ve been continually surprised how little attention Microsoft has focused on the WP version of Skype, this just confirms in my mind that the Skype executives view WP as a second class citizen.
