Skype today announced that it is making its group video calling feature free for select users. The feature was introduced in 2010 and was made available to Premium users on a Windows desktop, Mac and the Xbox One. Now, group video calling will be accessible for free to anyone on those platforms, with support for additional devices coming at a later date.
Skype is proud that, since our beginning, we’ve created opportunities for people to communicate freely and easily, no matter where they are; from keeping in touch with remote family members or calling home when traveling to chatting daily with your close circles of friends. While Skype is known for one to one video calling, we know it’s also essential to connect with the groups of people who matter most, whether friends, family or colleagues. For the last few years, we’ve offered group video calling to Premium users on Windows desktop and Mac and more recently Xbox One. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re making group video calling free – for all users on these platforms. And, in the future, we’ll be enabling group video calling for all our users across more platforms – at no cost.
Group video calling debuted on the Mac platform with Skype 5 in early 2011. Much like Google Hangouts, Skype video calling allows customers to hold a video conference with a group of other Skype users who can talk using the webcams on their devices. The feature was available for free in the beta version of Skype 5 and required a Premium subscription when it officially debuted in the shipping version.
You can download Skype for Mac from Skype's website. It is available for free and requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard and above, a webcam for video calling and a microphone.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Totally happy with facetime. I switched to facetime after microsoft bought skype.
:rolleyes: :apple:
The problem is, FaceTime still doesn't allow group video calling. Moreover, unlike Skype, FaceTime is not available across various platforms.
However, I was never satisfied with the call quality on Skype. Google Hangouts FTW!
Totally happy with facetime. I switched to facetime after microsoft bought skype.
:rolleyes: :apple:
So you only video chat with one person at a time, and only if they have an Apple device?
is that FaceTime becomes available multiplatform and with group video calling.
:rolleyes: :apple:
Totally happy with facetime. I switched to facetime after microsoft bought skype.
:rolleyes: :apple:
Glad you don't need group chat. Or have any friends that don't own an Apple device.