Microsoft's Hotmail is now 'social-friendly' Outlook.com

London, Aug 1 (ANI): Software giant Microsoft has renamed its Hotmail email service Outlook.com, as the firm plans to overhaul its free webmail service.

The revamped service will help sort messages as they arrive and allow users to make Internet calls on Skype.

The company said that the move would help tackle the problem of "cluttered" inboxes, the BBC reports.

Microsoft said that in many cases email had become a 'chore' because its users accounts had become 'overloaded' with material.

According to the firm, the new service is a solution is to automatically sort messages into different areas to distinguish between emails from contacts, newsletters, package delivery notices, social network posts and other identifiers determined by the account holder."We are giving you the first email service that is connected to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google, and soon, Skype, to bring relevant context and communications to your email," Microsoft's Chris Jones said on its blog.

"In the Outlook.com inbox, your personal email comes alive with photos of your friends, recent status updates and tweets that your friend has shared with you, the ability to chat and video call - all powered by an always up-to-date contact list that is connected to your social networks," Jones added.

According to the report, the new service may also be designed to win over users of Google's rival Gmail service. (ANI)