Skype co-founder takes on his own company with competitor, Wire

Former Skype team members have joined the new service, which hopes to reimagine chat apps and fix their problems

The co-founder of Skype has backed a new service that hopes to challenge messaging apps including his own, by fixing the problems that frustrate users about text and voice messaging and file sharing.

The creators hope that the app can combine the popularity of other apps including WhatsApp and workplace chat service Slack, as well as Skype.

The team, based in Switzerland and Germany, includes people who have worked at Skype, as well as Apple, Nokia and Microsoft, which bought Skype for $8.5 billion three years ago.

“Skype was launched more than a decade ago. 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,” said Janus Friis, a co-founder of Skype. “It is time to create the best possible communication tools, as beautiful as they are useful. Wire is just that.”

The app is available on iOS, Android and OS X, and keeps conversations synced across all three platforms. The app can be downloaded from Wire's website.

The company says that it has developed new technology to make calls sound more crisp and clear, and the app integrates other software including SoundCloud.