Skype for Microsoft Edge will work without any plug-ins

Skype has been trying to make its voice and video call services to work without installing the plug-ins for a long time.

The Windows 10 Insider Preview will have the Object RTC API, which is the element that will allow for real-time audio and video without any sort of plugin or installation.

Windows 10 preview build 10547 features plenty of new tweaks and improvements, and among them is a preview of the Object RTC (ORTC) APIs for Microsoft Edge, a collection of tools that will make it easier for developers to build audio and video calling into Web apps without requiring any browser plugins. Skype also said that it is working on delivering the same seamless experience to Skype for Business.

“We’re thrilled about the exciting scenarios that ORTC APIs enable and we are proud to be one of the first to use these ORTC APIs in the Edge Browser”, Skype says in the blog post. Microsoft is betting big on its Edge browser, which could help it get back the market share from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

What’s great about this development is that the ORTC technology isn’t exclusive to Microsoft, meaning other web browsers like Safari, Chrome and Firefox will soon have the same capabilities. This facilitates web apps such as voice calling, video conferencing, and general P2P data sharing directly within the browsers.

Now, Microsoft has decided to develop Object RTC (ORTC) as a way to deal with the issues brought by what it considers a flawed WebRTC standard. This means that those who use Skype on a browser will be able to access their conversations faster than ever on Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.

If web standards are supposed to eliminate unnecessary in-fighting and strengthen interoperability between browsers, doesn’t having two competing real-time data APIs go against this ideal?

Microsoft’s Skype team has announced the availability of ORTC API, which will essentially allow users to make voice and video calls without the need of any plug-ins.