Skype identifies IM bug

Skype, amid an apology to its users, says it has identified what’s causing private instant messages with one contact to be sent later to another without permission or warning.

“Based on recent Skype customer forum posts and our own investigation over the past couple of days, we have identified a bug that we are working hard to fix,” Skype said in a statement to The Times.

The bug causes a sort of crash flashback. When Skype crashes during an IM exchange, the company said, the bug “may in some cases result in the last IM entered or sent prior to the crash being delivered to a different IM contact after the Skype client is rebooted or logged in as a new user.”

Skype said that it hadn’t determined how many users have been affected by this, but it believes the issue is fairly isolated because of the “very specific circumstances under which the error occurs.”

Although it may be isolated to a small number of users, the company identified a range of clients it affects. They include Skype 5.9 and 5.10 for Windows, Skype 5.8 for Mac, Skype 4.0 for Linux, Skype 1.2 for Windows Phone, Skype 2.8 for Android and Skype 4.0 for iOS.

The company is working to release a fix in the next several days, according to the statement.

“We urge all Skype customers to download the latest client as soon as they are notified that any update, including this fix, is available,” the statement said.
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