Skype is bringing mobile group video calling to all major platforms

[Shawn Knight]

It may be hard for some to believe but it's been a full decade since Skype first unveiled its free video calling feature (and six years since it introduced one-to-one calling on mobile devices).

Microsoft is now taking Skype a step further with a new feature: group video calling on mobile devices.

In a post on the official Skype blog, Gurdeep Pall said group video calling is coming to Android, iOS and of course, Windows 10. The feature, which will be completely free, will be rolling out in the coming weeks. Those interested in trying it out before then can pre-register for early access simply by clicking here.

The application has no doubt had an impact on the way we communicate - if nothing else, inspiring a whole new breed of communication apps.

Since its debut in 2006 for the PC, Microsoft says more than 750 million people have downloaded Skype on their mobile devices, making it one of the most popular free apps ever on the iTunes Store and Google Play Store. Microsoft added that over the past decade, Skype has been used to place nearly two trillion minutes of free calls from every corner of the globe.

As The Verge notes, Skype isn't the first messaging app to add mobile group chat seeing as Google's Hangouts has offered the feature for quite some time. What's unclear right now is just how many people Skype will let use its mobile group chat at any given time (Hangouts supports up to 10).

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/63462-skype-bringing-mobile-group-video-calling-all-major.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Oh great .... now were going to have multiple people chatting on their phones as they drive, thus giving us greater opportunities for multi-car pileups acrossing the entire city scapes .... Now if we can get all the pilots out there to sign up we can create one heck of a mess!

 

[Jack007]

Since most internet users have 5mbps bandwith making streaming videos this is the most fantastic news for anyone with skype. Eventually they would have implemented this but now its just so great hearing its coming out

 

[Greg S]

This is too little too late. I've been using Google Hangouts to do video meetings with 10 people and it works just fine if everyone knows how to use it. GoTo Meeting and WebEx are both far superior as well.