Skype former employee unveils new messaging app

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December 3, 2014 4:56 PM

Presently, the new app is available for iOS, Android, and Mac OS X devices, with plans to release a web-version soon.

Janus Friis, one of the co-founders of video and instant messaging service, Skype has unveiled a new communications app called Wire.

It aims to re-imagine what Skype would look like had it been built today. The service also offers several useful features that are not as widely popular and adopted.

Presently, it is available for iOS, Android, and Mac OS X devices, with plans to release a web-version soon. The app packs in a lot of improved under-the-hood functionalities such as sophisticated media processing, audio technology, file compression and delivery among others.

"What attracted me to Wire is that it is something truly new. This is not some marginal improvement. This is not just an app," said Friis who has backed the app. "What the team has done is a complete from-the-ground-up reimagination of what communication should be," he added.

Much like Skype, Wire also lets you make one-to-one and group conversations. You can also drag photos, YouTube videos, GIF files, HD audio among other media content directly to the chat. It's smart too.

The app automatically sorts your chat list and puts those people on top who you regularly converse with. It also offers an interesting feature called 'ping' which will let you digital poke people to get their attention. There’s also an easy way to mute an annoying conversation thread.

"We want to solve all those little, nagging problems that have been persistent for years and years in digital communications," said Wire chief, Jonathan Christensen, who also happens to have worked at Skype.

The heads of the app stress on the high quality voice calls. Wire uses the Opus open source audio codec, which itself has contributions from one of company’s chief scientist Koen Vos. The company seems to be betting on all the important features a messenger app born in today's age should have. And that includes security aspect as well.

The app provides end-to-end encryption for all its voice calls, and encrypts all the data to and from its data centres. The service has been developed by people who have deep backgrounds in communications and networking. The headcount includes people who have come from Apple, Nokia, Microsoft, as well as Skype team.

There’s one problem, though. It doesn’t offer video calls just yet, though it assures that it will be added soon, alongside support for HTML5. Wire downlaod is absolutely free.

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