An update in June has caused what Skype is calling a "rare" issue, in which some users' instant messages are sent to the wrong person from their contact list. The amount of errant IMs sent seems to vary by user — over at the Skype support forums, some users claim that just two messages were inadvertently sent to the wrong contact, while others say that an entire conversation was sent. Skype has has since confirmed that a solution is in the works, telling Engadget "we are rolling out a fix for this issue in the next few days and will notify our users to download an updated version of Skype." Until then, you might want to be careful what you IM.

Update: SlashGear is now reporting some additional details on the bug, courtesy of Skype itself. According to the report, the bug is triggered when the application crashes in the midst of an exchange; at that point the last message sent gets transmitted to an unintended party. The following versions of the app are said to be affected:

  • Skype 5.8, OS X
  • Skype 5.9 and 5.10, Windows
  • Skype 4.0, Linux
  • Skype 4.0, iOS
  • Skype 2.8, Android
  • Skype 1.2, Windows Phone