Microsoft today released a new version of Skype Alpha for Linux. This is a totally redesigned software that has nothing to do with the previous version of Skype 4.3 that has been released for years. 
The app is still in an early stage of development and does not have any key features like video calling or screen sharing.
The new Skype according to the change log for the 1.5 version highlights the following improvements and fixes:
The vocals messages sound are working.
The emojis work with sound.
You can now turn off the sounds noticeand disable message notifications entirely from Settings.
Disabled drag&drop to URL in Skype which opens a program browsing in practice.
Status icon sizes have improved in some distributions.
The new version of the communication app for Linux shows a shift of developers away from Qt framework used in web technologies. So this version uses the Electron platform, Chromium and Node.js.
You can download the updated application from the following link:
