Skype is getting a major, much-needed upgrade: Skype 4.0. President Josh Silverman calls it the “biggest new release in Skype’s history.” The new software client, which which will be released here in beta tomorrow (for Windows only), takes up the whole screen. Video is front and center.
“Our old UI was purpose-built for voice ,” Silverman tells me. (I put an excerpt from my interview with him up on TalkCrunch, or you can listen to the audio file directly). Now by going full-screen, the functionality can be spread out and made much simpler. It also makes it a better video-chat client. There is a big green “video call” button now. There is picture-in-picture functionality, and you can move the thumbnail around that shows your video.
The peer-to-peer technology ensures good quality video, and there is more space available for text chatting or sending files while the conversation is going. When you do a video chat, it really has the feeling of being in a video chat room. You can also pull in videos from Metacafe and DailyMotion (but not from YouTube). While Skype can handle up to 25 participants on the same call with voice, it is limited to one-to-one video chats at this point. Although, those can be combined with multi-party voice and text chats where everyone else just hears the audio. In comparison, Paltalk can do thousands of simultaneous video chats in a similar room-like environment.
The other major change in Skype 4.0 is that the entire experience is now centered around conversations and managing those conversations, whether those are with groups or individuals. Skype 4.0 lets you import contacts from Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. (No Gmail, another snub to Google).
There are also other improvements, such as automatic detection when you plug in a new headset or if your laptop lacks a built-in microphone. It also has software tools for testing your audio and video quality. All in all, Skype 4.0 is a step forward.
Skype, which is owned by eBay, boasts 309 million registered users and had $126 million in revenues in the first quarter.
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well it took them this long to go to video shocks me
@1: skype has had video calling for years now, it just seems like they’ve made it better.
Boooooo for full screen IM applications.
The video call feature is pretty awesome. Skype should attempt to do a shared revenue program with a mobile phone carrier - say a next generation smart phone that allows for video chat. Skype could be the provider, even though we’d be talking different technologies from what they are currently using. This type of innovation in the market place is key. Check it out…
http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog
Well, it’s better late than never…
They should do something similar to what Orgoo is doing with multi-video chat and add more cool features like how Apple does it with their iChat thingy..
If you want to go out with a bang, then go out with a bang…
This is fantastic news… what took them so long… they should have had something like this years ago!
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
Awesome!
So i hear this videochat thing has a chance of having a future on the web.
Nice job for jumping in soooo early Skype
Windows only? FAIL.
Looks nice, but until they put out a Mac version, I’m SOL.
And Linux what?
Is it me or is there a bit of a feature creep going on at Skype? To many users Skype is essentially a communication tool - voice or video - I don’t think it’s an appealing proposition to pull in videos from outside sources into the conversation. The simple - and free - way of communication seemed to be the value proposition up until Skype 3.0 - this seems changing in 4.0 to something a lot more complicated. In a different product, yes, but the original idea seems to be lost among all these new features.
anybody notice url is not working?
I certainly hope full-screen is optional, otherwise this will be a major sc***-up.
How safe is their video anyway? How do you know people aren’t watching your conversations?
Is full screen optional? If not I won’t be upgrading as I use Skype mostly for chat.
Well, their voice communications used to be extra-safe. Let`s hope video stays the same.
I think that the special thing about Skype, as said before, was their simplicity and good audio. If they were able to create great video quality and remain stable - great. If not, it`s just another good company gone bad.
And btw, they should add a presentation`s window.
I love the fact that you put Meebo and Skype in the same leauge. It certainly shows that your thinking is not constrained by reality.
.
I feel sorry for Seesmic. Their party is over.
Oh great yet another app to suck up my WHOLE desktop. AOL anyone? What next? Widgets for my widgets in a window for my whole desktop?
sent from: fav.or.it [FID172227]
Oh great yet another app to suck up my WHOLE desktop. AOL anyone? What next? Widgets for my widgets in a window for my whole desktop?
sent from: fav.or.it [FID172237]
According to the chart, Skype spends at least 66 million a quarter. That’s 200 million in operating costs per year. It doesn’t take a lot of engineers to develop skype. So.. manager blubber? bandwidth costs?
There is 1.5 billion people using the internet. At 309 million ‘users’, that is around 20% of all internet users… saturation point nearing?
I love skype, and I am using it more and more (I have Skype pro). However, I like the fact that Skype is small and non-intrusive (love the Skype Outlook plugin). So, I am not convinced about the new default full screen layout (i.e. I am definitely going to wait a little bit before upgrading).
The things I would have loved to see in Skype 4 are:
1) Multiple-users Video chat
2) Desktop Sharing
3) Co-browsing
3) Meeting URLs (Similar to WebEx or AdobeConnect urls, but in this case, the URL would just be used to trigger to initiate a traditional Skype P2P connection).
My Skype usage is 50% business and 50% personal, and while #2 could be seen as a “business feature”, I would definitely use it with my no-so-geeky family members.
get gizmo instead.. its based on open standards
“The peer-to-peer technology ensures good quality video”
How? Peer-to-peer works when there’s existing material to re-distribute, not when there’s single-source, time-sensitive content. it’s not like the video chat you are about to have is already cached on someone else’s computer….
(And Skype has had video chat for a while now…)
Forget this nonsense… I just want to call someone on their phone from Skype and not have their caller id display show jibberish! If I call a friend, they see “00000000″ or “123456789″. I couldn’t care less about video.
Hey folks, if you can answer this for me?
I wonder if Skype have this feature where you can embed video chat & with text chat like justin.tv and ustream.tv? If not, then Skype need it asap!!
How Skype 4 can killed seesmic’s like ?
I would pay Skype an extra $100/year if they would build me a light weight version with basic features focused on call quality and reliability.
I love Skype. It’s my main tool for communication. But they need to clean up their app soon. In the “old days” I’d be the first to pull the beta down. This time, I hope it will never go out of beta.
@24 FooBar: Skype has always been p2p and they apparently made it work well both for voice and video.
In general: I *really* hope that the full screen thing is optional. I’m using Skype mostly for IM with customers and friends, with some occasional voice call and some more occasional video call. I can’t imagine how I could keep messaging customers while working at their sw with a full screen client, so I’m pretty sure we’ll switch to some other messaging platform.
Well, I’ll try 4.0 in a VM first…
Just in case someone wonders why I’m using Skype for IM instead of MSN & Co., everybody I care about has some traditional IM client *and* Skype. So instead of many IM clients *and* Skype, I’m using only Skype. I’m also using Meebo to aggregate the IM accounts I created in the last 10 years or so, but Skype is just better because it starts with the OS and I don’t have to remember to open in in a browser tab. I go to Meebo only if I have to chat with somebody who doesn’t have Skype. It happens about once every 2-3 months.
Any news on when they’re going to release a Mac version? It really pisses me off that the current Mac skype doesn’t have ANY video capability, with the Mac share of the market increasing they need to get this sorted.
Joshua - The Mac version has had video for years, not sure what you’re talking about.
Jeff S. - You can set set your caller ID now to show your number. It’s on their website when you login.
Good stuff, not sure about the full screen though. Looks ugly.
Video chat rooms without any extra hardware or costs. The next frontier in off-site working is just starting. I think skype will be one of the major companies to make the shift in the way we do business. They will be the company who shared these technologies to the masses. Skype brand is already included in my lovemarks lists.
Pulling in videos (from Metacafe, Dailymotion and YouTube!) could be always done simply by sending a link… and the videos are completely unsynched which is very annoying when in voice chat.
Actually, most of the videos I would like to watch with my family and friends are on my hard drive as they are too big to be uploaded or sent. It would be very useful if skype could use their p2p tech to allow users to watch their home videos together while on a voice chat.
Skype statistics of online users based on the on-screen counter:
http://www.skypestats.com/
Skype users! SeeToo is the ONLY service that allows you, while in a chat, to send just a link of a video file from your local hard drive to friends, and watch it instantly together, utterly synched, without the need to upload or send t for hours in advance.
Share video files of any type and Size(!) with unlimited number of friends.
Enjoy!
@25 You can set caller ID from your Account page on Skype.com
@30 The Mac version has supported video for a while now, go get the latest version from Skype.com
Looks nice,
BTW, oovoo allows MULTIPLE person voice, chat AND video!
…and SEETOO indeed rocks! It really makes the chat and VoIP experience much better.
I just installed Skype 4.0 beta and it started Full Screen!!! Wtf?!? Skype taking up my whole desktop? I cannot believe they managed to come up with this idiotic user interface…
Reality check: Skype is a (fantastic) communications tool and does a wonderful job in the background. It is my communications hub and I love the unparalleled sound and video quality. Skype is not supposed to take up my whole desktop, it should do it’s work quietly in the background!
So is Skype IM+Voice+Video, or Voice+Video+IM, or VoIP with POTS interconnect? Looking at it purely as an IM chat system, it’s now in the top 3.
So why do so many web sites still not include Skype when you fill in your IM account name?
Wow I apologize- I’ve been annoyed at the lack of caller ID for more than a year. I’m so happy they added outgoing caller id- Thanks for pointing it out to me guys!
I hope they can compare to Apple’s iChat - which is great! I wish they had it for PC!
Feature bloat. Damn. Another nice, useful, lightweight application that has decided that it needs to own everything that I do with my computer. Wondeful.
Erick, the company stats for Skype on this page reads “Launch Date: June 14, 2007″. Wasn’t it sometime in 2003/2004? Or is this date reflective of when eBay took over?
So we will finally do video calls…
http://tech-talk.biz/2008/05/2.....deo-calls/
This is very UGLY takes up too much screenspace, I hate it and I bet millions of others will.
Skype had video before too.. they just wanted to change the interface and they did if very badly.
I think they got vista designers to destory skype as they did with windows.
What they REALLY need is to sync the Windows, OS X, and Linux versions. And make the add-ons cross platform.
Wow… you can’t even type a message in the chat without the whole thing freezing for 30 seconds. The other side on a voice call could barely hear me. Basically any (even basic) operation seems to make it freeze.
Seems more like an alpha to me… time to downgrade.
I use my spikko for free!!
the next thing!
(at least is my opinion…)