Skype, Wire Unite to Make The 'Best Possible Communication Tool'

Skype has announced its support to a new communication startup called "Wire," which aims to be the "best possible communication tool."

Skype co-founder and Wire investor Janus Friis confirmed the company's interest in backing up Wire in an interview with The Guardian.

"What attracted me to Wire is that it is something truly new," Friis remarked. "This is not some marginal improvement. This is not just an app. This is not just attacking one feature trying to do something marginally better. What the team has done is a complete from-the-ground-up re-imagination of what communication should be. I wouldn't have been interested if this was just another feature."

Friis also mentioned the how a lot has changed since the first release of Skype.

"Skype was launched more than a decade ago," Friis added. "A lot has changed since then - we are all used to free calls and texting, and we have taken to carrying our computers in our pockets."

Wire is an application that aims to combine the elements of Skype, WhatsApp and Slack, a communications service that's been widely used recently.

Conversations in Wire can be one-on-one or by group. It also allows users to drag photos, Youtube videos and SoundCloud track while conversing. Wire populates the users' social graph through their contacts list. It also capable of sorting those contacts using various signals, including chat frequency and time of the day or week the conversation has been made.

Voice calls are also included in the application and its audio quality is speculated to be its key selling point, according to The Guardian. Wire used Opus open source audio codec, which is developed in part by the company's chief scientist Koen Voc. Wire's chief executive Jonathan Christensen assured users the improvements in the audio specifications.

"We have deep expertise in audio technology: we've made many refinements to the audio stack, said Christensen. "It's one of our core things."

Furthermore, Christensen and his team has given much attention in Wire's design. The user interface allows the ability to "ping" contacts to attract attention, mute and sync conversations. In the mobile platform, Wire's text-input cursor can be swiped to the side to show action icons

"There are hundreds of features in the product, and a lot of refinement from being in this space for many years, and knowing where the pain points are," Christensen stated. "We want to solve all those little, nagging problems that have been persistent for years and years in digital communications."

Although the current version of the application is not capable of video calling, Christensen has stated that the company has the necessary skills to develop such feature in the future.

Christensen also stated that security is a major concern for Wire. Currently, the software uses end-to-end encryption for all of its voice calls, and encryption to and from its data centres for all messages and media.

The Wire team also sent a statement to PC World regarding the application's security. The statement reads as follows:

"We've made technical design and product choices to provide Wire users with the benefits of a certain feature set - for example, the ability to enjoy conversations across multiple devices and platforms. We are constantly reviewing those choices with security in mind. Unlike a lot of small startups, we have made a significant investment and are thoughtful about security. We have many full-time security experts working with us, and we hire outside firms to audit who can see the data and under what circumstances."

Wire is available on iOS, Android and OSX and is currently free. It may, however, eventually introduce features that requires payment in the future.