Okay, exactly HOW does Skype handle contacts?

[AaHaa]

I want to love Skype, I really do. I love the UI and the functionality, but there's one big thing that's been buggin me for years now. The extremely weird way Skype handles my contacts. It's one big clusterf*ck of duplicates, Facebook friends and old MSN messenger contacts. I linked my Facebook account to Skype, and when I sort the contact list to Facebook, it kinda looks allright, but calling doesn't work when I try to call these Facebook contacts. Original Skype contacts I CAN call, but they won't show up in my contact list when I sort on Facebook friends.
But when I sort my contact list back to all, it becomes the usual choas, with tons of duplicates and weird names. For example, I'll have my girlfriend as a Facebook contact, a Skype contact and an old Messenger contact. So if I wanted to call her, I'd have to check all three accounts which one she is currently using before calling her. That's hardly efficient.

Can someone who knows more about Skype tell me how to properly use the Skype contact list? And also, isn't there a way to merge contacts? It would take me a while to merge all duplicates, but at least it would give me an option to clean up the mess it is right now.

Thanks!!

 

[gpobernardo]

I think Skype "handles" your contacts on an "as-is" basis, i.e. depending on what details you have on that contact in your Skype account. If that contact does not have a properly assigned name (just the bare username), the Microsoft Account version of that contact should at least have the username in there so that Windows Phone will detect that they're the same contact and automatically merge them. But if they're left un-merged as in your case, you can always merge any number* of contacts by selecting any contact in your People Hub (preferably while "all" are being shown) and then tapping on the chain icon at the bottom of the screen. You will then be prompted to link suggested contacts or to search from your list of contacts. This definitely might take time depending on the number of contacts you want to link, but it's a solution.

*- Not sure on this, but I've linked up to eight contact identities to a single contact.

 

[AaHaa]

Oh my bad, forgot to mention I'm talking about the Skype desktop app! Windows Phone version performs wonderfully though