Skype has officially announced version 4.0 of its Android app that makes Skype unrecognizable, but in a good way. Skype says the app has been completely rewritten from the ground up, with an entirely new code base with Skype combining some of the design language from the “Modern UI” with elements of Android’s Holo. More than just the way things look, things are supposed to feel a lot faster, smoother, and better, as well.

Every bit of the application has been touched, from the standard home view to chat conversations, from profile pages to the call UI, and everything else that’s sandwiched in between. Your friends list is more lively with avatars being presented in nice, big, bold fashion. The chat view is no longer an endless stream of text — you’ll now see your friends’ icons next to their messages.

You’ll be able to swipe between recent conversations, favorite people and your full contacts list with a swipe-based tab UI. And beyond all that, Skype’s eye-pleasing blue hue is represented quite well here, and doesn’t feel overdone at all. Skype tells us it was very important to make the base chat experience more pleasant to use, as they noticed a great deal of Android users lean on this feature just as heavily as they do voice and video calls.

This effectively makes Skype 4.0 the biggest update we’ve seen since the original version 1.0 launch. The greatest thing about the redesign is that the app doesn’t lose any of the features we’ve already been enjoying, including the new video messaging capabilities that just came out of preview status earlier this week.

On the flip side, Skype 4.0 doesn’t add anything, either, but considering the team went into this overhaul with no previous code to lean on. We’re just happy we didn’t have to compromise the functionality we already had for good looks, and boy does this thing look good. Skype for Android 4.0 is available for download in the Google Play Store as of today but it may take a bit of time to make its way to everyone around the world.