Skype has found its niche in the business market, but its competitors, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and even Facebook Messenger, have always had the advantage in one key area: communication privacy.
All three of the previously-mentioned services offer end-to-end conversation encryption, making them superior choices for anyone who needs to discuss sensitive matters or share private company information quickly.
To be fair, Skype did begin testing chat encryption back in January, but it was only available to a handful of users. As reported by MSPoweruser, though, that's changing today - end-to-end encryption is now available for everybody.
For the sake of clarity, the feature does not go into effect automatically. Much like Facebook's Secret Conversation tool, Skype's end-to-end encryption will need to be enabled on a per-conversation basis.
To start a new encrypted chat with one of your Skype contacts, simply select the "New Private Conversation" option when you begin a new chat. Once the contact in question confirms that they want to participate in a private chat, all your communications moving forward will be protected.
Interestingly, this feature can only be used on a single device at a time. For example, you can't check the status of your private conversations on your phone while they're still active on your PC; you'll need to switch them over manually.