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The market for messaging apps is already busting at the seems, but one company thinks it can beat the competition with a sleek new service that promises to work across all your devices. Say hello to Wire, a new app launched this week by a team of former Skype employees.
Wire is available right now for Android, iOS and OS X. The company also says it plans to release a browser-based version of the app to use on Windows devices. Beyond messaging, the new service offers high-quality voice calling, image sharing and integration with YouTube and SoundCloud. That means you can share and listen to songs or watch videos from inside the app while you keep messaging your friends.
The company is being led by co-founder and CEO Jonathan Christensen, who previously spent six years at Skype leading the audio video team before eventually managing the entire service. He left in 2012 after the company was acquired by Microsoft and quickly began developing Wire. The new app also has support from Skype co-founder Janus Friis.
“Skype was launched more than a decade ago,” Friss said in an official statement. “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. It is time to create the best possible communication tools, as beautiful as they are useful. Wire is just that.”
There are still a few questions that need answering. Wire hasn’t cleared up how security will work for the new app. The company also claims that group chats are “full democracy,” though we’re not sure what that actually means. Still, we’re excited to try Wire out for ourselves and see how it compares to the competition.