Microsoft brings Skype-powered group chat to Word, PowerPoint online

Users who had been looking for group chats while working on collaborative Word and PowerPoint documents inside Office Online have their wishes granted, PC World reported. After Microsoft's announcement in late November that Skype-powered group chat was in the pipeline, Skype recently introduced the functionality to Office Online.

When two or more people are working on the same document, a chat button would appear, allowing them to communicate with their collaborators. The new feature had not yet been rolled out to Excel or OneNote Online.

Earlier, chatting with other collaborators in Office Online was a tricky business with users being able to chat with one other person using a roundabout method. The addition of Skype would make online collaboration much easier with Microsoft's web apps.

Once one had started a chat in Office Online it was named after the document. If one was working on a PowerPoint presentation called "Budget 2015," for example, the chat would have the same name and be saved to users' recent conversations list in Skype.

That allowed users to close their Office document and open Skype on the desktop, mobile device, or the Windows Store app and continue the conversation.

Microsoft said, ''Users will be able to continue any chats started in Office Online on Skype on the desktop or their smart phone after the file is closed.''

With the addition of the new feature, Microsoft intended to make its services into cross-platform tools, Tech 2 reported. The official blog post gives additional information about Microsoft's new Skype group chats.

Reports had earlier suggested that Microsoft had released a test version of Skype, which allowed people to make internet calls from web browsers, eliminating the need to install special applications. A small number of users would be able to use Skype for web initially. It would, however, be rolled out globally in the coming months, according to Microsoft.