Microsoft gave up on phone hardware, but it still wants us all to use its mobile apps. With that in mind, Skype for Android is getting a major update to optimize it for low-end Android smartphones and tablets.
As the Skype blog explains, anyone with a device running Android 4.0.3 through 5.1 will see noticeable improvements when using the updated app. Less storage space is required and less memory is used by the app. Microsoft says that allows for Skype to be faster and therefore can offer better audio and video quality on these lower performance devices.
The other, and arguably more important improvement, is Skype for Android's ability to better perform when a device is being used with "challenging network connections." In other words, your Skype chats shouldn't drop as often as they do now over poor connections.
