Updated: Skype is now optimized for lower-end Android phones

For those with inexpensive Android phones, older models or poor network coverage, this upgrade for Android 4.0.3 to 5.1, is supposed to bring “greater speed and better audio and video quality,” says Microsoft.

Adapting apps to be “lighter on both disk and memory consumption,” as Skype is doing, is a new and necessary trend to accommodate the growing markets who seek out affordable phones. And there is no shortage of them as many manufacturers are now competing to provide the best-performing ‘under $200' models, rather than trying to outdo the latest flagships.

Affordability usually comes at a cost -- less internal storage -- therefore each installed app will slow things down. Hence the start of a battle for data.

To accommodate these issues, Twitter released its “data-friendly” Lite version last September, which, under 1MB, loads more quickly, takes up less space and functions better over poor networks. Shortly after, Facebook introduced its Messenger Lite for Android.

Since then, Google has reinforced this movement by releasing the Android Oreo (Go Edition), to bridge the performance gap for those not buying the latest flagships.

So it's not surprising that Skype for Android, which has been downloaded from Google Play Store over one billion times, rolls out its own solution. This version is set to reach devices worldwide in the next few days, however some areas may have to wait a few weeks.