Features of Skype

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The following is a partial list of Skype's features:

Calls between Skype and landline/mobile phone numbers

Skype users can call landline and mobile phone numbers (previously known as SkypeOut) using Skype Credit or a calling subscription. Additionally, users can purchase Online Numbers (previously called SkypeIn) that lets contacts call their Skype client from a landline or mobile phone.

Outgoing calls

SkypeOut allows Skype users to call traditional phone numbers, including mobile phones, for a fee. This fee is as low as US$0.021 per minute for most developed countries, and as high as US$2.142 per minute for calls to the island Diego Garcia. Beginning January 2007, Skype also charges a €0.039 connection fee for each SkypeOut call. After 180 days of not making a SkypeOut call the Skype balance expires; however, it can be reactivated. From 15 May 2006 to 30 January 2007, SkypeOut calls to Canada and the United States were free, but that was a promotional program and it has expired—those calls are no longer free.

SkypeOut calls to most toll-free numbers in Australia, Austria, France (+33 800, +33 805, +33 809), Germany, Netherlands, Poland: (+48 800), UK: (+44 500, +44 800, +44 808 ), Taiwan and the United States: (+1 800, +1 888, +1 877, +1 866, +1 855) are free for all Skype users, even if they do not have the SkypeOut service. However, for many other countries SkypeOut doesn't support calls to toll-free or premium rate numbers, and SkypeOut doesn't support calling emergency numbers such as 1-1-2 in Europe or 911 in the United States.

Quality of service is not guaranteed, and drop-outs, broken connections, and compression distortion are frequently observed by users.^{[citation needed]}

Support for the above toll free numbers in Canada has been effectively removed since January 2012.

Caller ID for outgoing calls

Skype advertises a feature allowing users to set the caller ID for outgoing calls to normal telephone numbers. Set-up verification involves sending an SMS text message to a selected mobile phone number, then typing that verification code into a web form. Since most regular home and business telephones cannot receive text messages, this feature is only available to owners of mobile phones.

However, according to discussions on Skype's user forums and other forums on the Internet, SMS messaging from Skype's system has not been working correctly in various locales since at least June 2008.^{[citation needed]} Although Skype maintains that the problem has been corrected, SMS continues to be inoperative as recently as July 2009 in the United States and Canada. During the verification process, the Skype Web site makes it appear as if a text message has been sent to the user's mobile phone, and an appropriate fee is deducted from the user's Skype credit balance, but no text messages are actually received on the phone. Since many individuals and business refuse incoming telephone calls whose Caller ID has been blocked, this hampers the utility of Skype in calling normal telephone numbers.

Online Numbers

A feature named Online Number (until 2010 named SkypeIn) allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers dialed from mobiles or landlines to a Skype-provided phone number. The number need not be in the same location as the user. For example, a user in San Francisco could create a local telephone number in Helsinki. Callers in Helsinki could then make a local call to reach that user (who answers on Skype in San Francisco).

Skype offers numbers in Australia, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In Russia some third party companies, including SIP operators, provide direct numbers, redirecting calls to Skype.

Subscription calling plans

On 19 December 2006, Skype announced that there would be a new pricing structure in 2007. Details on a new scheme were released 18 January 2007. The initial press release was vague about the new scheme, but it did reveal that there may be a new connection fee.

In January 2007, Skype launched a prepaid Unlimited call subscription service for North American customers. Skype's Unlimited calling offers a full year of Unlimited calls to anyone, on any phone, within the U.S. and Canada for a one-time (i.e., annual) fee. This plan which was called Skype Pro only allowed the unlimited calls that were made from inside North America.

As of April 21, 2008, these plans were changed to the new calling subscription plans, which don't require the calls to start from a certain country. Under the current plans, there is a Unlimited US & Canada plan for $2.95 or €1.95 per month, an Unlimited Country plan for $5.95 or €3.95 per month, and an Unlimited World plan for $12.95 or €8.95 per month.

Skype offers several monthly plans that it calls unlimited. However, Skype limits these subscriptions to 10,000 minutes per month, 6 hours per day, and 50 telephone numbers per day. If one of these limits is exceeded, any additional calls are billed at regular rates and connection fees.

Voicemail

Skype Voicemail was released on March 10, 2005. This service allows callers to leave voicemail messages for Skype users who are indisposed. This is currently a service that users have to pay for, though several companies, including Pamela, PrettyMay, PowerGramo and Kishkish provides a Skype voicemail service for free (However, these voicemail services only work when the programme and the computer is online). Skype Voicemail had experienced numerous problems over the years and users complain that many voicemail calls are never received.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, the Online Number feature occasionally fails to record certain incoming calls on the program's history page.^{[citation needed]}

Video calling and screen sharing

Skype 2.0 and later, on Microsoft Windows (DirectX 9.0 or above required), Mac OS X, and Linux, supports video calling for Skype-to-Skype calls between two parties. Skype 3.6 and later on Windows supports high-definition video. Skype 3.0.0 on iOS allows iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users to call each other, as well as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Skype 5 supports group video calls.Group video calling - Skype Sharing of external monitors is also supported via 3rd party hardware.

If you use Skype and then install Facebook Video Chat with Skype, a Facebook product, screen sharing in Skype will only be available for Skype Premium, a subscription service.

SMS text messaging

Like many other instant messaging services, Skype clients can send SMS text messages to mobile phone numbers. In the United States, China, and Taiwan, Skype uses a "generic, pre-defined number" as the sender ID. In other countries, the message can be set to appear coming from a verified mobile number, allowing recipients to reply, or else show the first 11 characters of the Skype username. However, as of March 2011, Skype users cannot receive SMS, despite a continuing series of requests and complaints.

Costs are generally lower than standard SMS charges; for example Skype's UK rate per SMS message including VAT is 6.4p, compared to standard rates of 10p or 12p^{[citation needed]}; for international SMS costs will be significantly cheaper using Skype. When the recipient of the message is roaming, the message may not be delivered. However modifying the cell numbers country code to the desired region can sometimes alleviate this problem.^{[citation needed]}

Wireless hotspot network access

Skype WiFi (previously called Skype Access) allows users to pay per minute for Internet access at commercial wireless hotspots using Skype Credit. As of May 2010, Skype lists more than 100 participating networks. This replaced an earlier feature Skype Zones Beta which provided subscription-based access at wireless hotspots operated by Boingo and The Cloud.

Application features

The Skype Web Toolbar recognizes phone and Skype numbers, and is available only for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox on Windows. Such numbers on web pages are replaced with an icon that can be clicked to call the number using Skype, or right-clicked to provide further options, such as adding the number to Skype's list of contacts. The toolbar detects phone numbers automatically, but a web site developer can override the detection algorithm using a Meta element and mark the valid numbers individually.

A log file is created for each contact on a user's contact list. Log files are stored locally, meaning they are not available if a user switches computers. By default, the option to log conversations is disabled, but can be enabled in the tools / privacy panel.

On Windows, Skype can be run directly from a USB flash drive without being installed on the host computer. On Mac OS X, installation on the host computer is not required.

Third party add-ons

Skype version 3.0 and above provides additional tools under the Do More submenu. The Skype Extras listing is also accessible at https://extras.skype.com. Examples of third-party add-ons include the 'Pamela' call recorder for recording voice calls, Unyte desktop sharing, and games.

A service by fring enables Skype, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, and Google Talk users to transparently use their respective programs with full access to contacts, chat, talk, and presence capabilities.

Web-based services like PamFax previously allowed Skype users to send faxes worldwide at a low cost per page, but the service was discontinued in 2009. PamFax continues its campaign to openly advertise Skype compatibility, leaving many customers to complain on the company website.

G-Recorder records chats and voice calls and stores them in Gmail (Microsoft Windows only).

PocketSkype

PocketSkype is a freeware software that allows users to make Skype voice calls using their Wi-Fi-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC. PocketSkype is a thin version of Skype and developed specifically for PDA devices and any mobile software. It helps people to make free, unlimited, and unmetered calls. PocketSkype retains the same core of regular Skype software and it works on any PDA running Windows Mobile 2003 with a 400 MHz processor and equipped with Wi-Fi.

Discontinued features

Skype chat

Skype supports group text chat with an interface similar to IRC with 150 people.

The Macintosh version used to use the same message view style format as Adium, though with a different filename extension. Message view styles made for Adium could be installed for Skype, and they did not even need to be renamed. There were a couple of cosmetic bugs, but ignoring those, Adium styles worked without modification. This feature is not present in the Windows, Linux, and Pocket PC versions of Skype. This feature has been discontinued starting with Skype 2.7.0.49.

HTML support in Skype

Skype for windows can work with some HTML-tags so you can use it in conversation. For skype to process the HTML code, please hold CTRL+SHIFT and manually click «Send message» button.

List of supported tags:

• stripped <s> </s>;
• underline <u> </u>;
• font <font color="#ff0000" size="15"> </font> with attributes:

• color (only HEX 8 symbol code, like #abc123);
• size;

• marked and unmarked lists (<ul> <li> </li> </ul>, <ol> <li> </li> </ol>);
• external links (<a href="http://wikipedia.org ">wikipedia.org</a>);
• blinking text (<blink> </blink>);
• bold and italic (<b></b> and <i></i>);
• HTML-comments (<!-- -->).
• quotes (<quote author="skype_id" authorname="DisplayedName" conversation="ConversationName" timestamp="unixTimestamp"><legacyquote>[hh:mm:ss] DisplayedName: </legacyquote>Quoted text</quote>).

Unsupported tags disappear. If at least one of the paired tag is not closed, then Skype will not send a message («Send message» button wont work). Thanks to HTML support it is possible to display simple pictures in Skype chat using services like http://img4skype.com which generate HTML-code from images.

SkypeMe!

Skype let users set their presence indicator to "SkypeMe!" in earlier versions of Skype software and the current linux version. It invited calls from strangers. Setting one's status to SkypeMe! attracts a number of callers who want to practice a foreign language (usually English), in addition to the expected scammers and spammers. Much to the annoyance of the Skype community this feature has been hidden from being selectable starting with Skype version 4.x.

Skypecasts

Skypecasting was released on May 3, 2006. Skypecasts are live, moderated conversations allowing groups of up to 100 people to converse, moderated by the "host" who is able to mute, eject or pass the virtual microphone to participants when they wish to speak. Skypecasts do not support chat windows to share text information (such as URLs) with participants. The Skypecast feature is missing in Skype for Linux, but a user can join a Skypecast conversation simply by dialing the Skypecast's code with SkypeOut. The user will then have somewhat limited capabilities, such as not seeing the others in a conversation 'room'.

On August 26, 2008, Peter Parkes announced that Skypecasts will be discontinued at 12 noon BST on Monday September 1, 2008 [2]. Parkes, a Cambridge economics graduate who works for 'we are social', a conversation agency in London, also writes to the Skype blog. On August 27 he added detail to this announcement in another blog posting [3].

The discontinuation announcement was revealed only on these two blog postings and not on Skype.com, the Skypecasts directory page [4] nor other sources. Therefore the end to Skypecasts were thought by some to be an elaborate hoax. At 12 noon BST, Skypecasts were still running but after around 2 hours they ended and on Skypecasts Directory [5] it says 'Skypecasts unavailable'.

In Skype 4.0 Beta, Skypecasts did not work even before the discontinuation announcement. There is no 'Live' Tab and when you could access the listings in the directory and tried to enter a Skypecasts a message came up after a dialing tone was heard say: 'Failed' (or a similar message).

In late 2009 the company, Skype for Power Gamers (S4PG), announced that in Q2 2010 it would be releasing both a client and server Skype Add-on that will enable Skype end-users to host their own "Skypecast-like" auto-conference rooms.

Skype Prime

Skype Prime was a beta feature in Skype 3.1. It allowed users to call lines that charged a per minute rate usually for advice on a particular topic. The feature has since been discontinued in later versions of the Windows and Mac clients.

SkypeFind / Business directory

SkypeFind was a community-generated directory of business reviews in Skype 3.1. The feature was removed Skype for Windows 4.x client. The business directory replaced SkypeFind but has also been discontinued from version 5.x of the Windows client.

Not Available status

Since Skype 4, the "Not Available" status is supported.

Most Skype versions, including version 4, broadcast a status of "Not Available" after a configured idle time, but Skype 4 no longer allows the user edit this setting. The only way for the user to configure this idle time setting is to edit the IdleTimeForNA setting in the config.xml file.

Skype 4 displays other users' "Not Available" status as "Away".

See also

• Comparison of VoIP software
• Skype Protocol
• Videoconferencing
• Voice over IP