Microsoft engineers are working to resolve a technical issue affecting Skype, which delays the sending of messages among Skype users, and in some cases, prevents users from connecting to the service.

While the login issue appears to be new, the problem of messages being delayed for minutes before reaching their destination manifested last week as well. The Skype support team wrote on Friday:

We are aware of problems with our messaging service. Users could see delays, or failures in chat message delivery. Our engineers are on it and we hope to resolve the issue soon. We apologize for problems this may have caused.

Despite Microsoft claiming to have fixed the message delay issue on Friday, the same day it was reported, the problem continued through the weekend.

Today, users flocked to Skype's support forum with new complaints. Microsoft acknowledged the issue once more:

We are aware of problems with our messaging service. Users could see delays, or failures in chat message delivery.
Our engineers are investigating and we hope to resolve the issue soon.

At the time of writing, trying to send a Skype message results in delays from 1 to 5 minutes before the message reaches its intended recipient.

For some users, this delay is smaller, and some don't experience it at all. Users can notice the delay by the presence of a "spinner" animation next to their message, as seen in the screenshot below.

Skype message delay issue

Users who noticed delayed messages, also reported that Skype disconnected for no apparent reason.

If it's a very important message, there is a workaround for having your message sent. After sending the message, users can quit Skype, and reconnect a few seconds later. In some cases, the message is delivered right away, without having to wait minutes to reach the other person.

Until now, users reported the problem from multiple countries, on different Windows versions, and with different Skype builds. Most likely, the issue is related to Skype servers, and not a buggy build.

Here's a list of support topics where users have reported the issues: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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