Skype Group Video Calling Goes Live On Android & iOS Apps

Following very late on the heels of Google Hangouts, Skype has launched the group video calling option on its Android and iOS app. From today onwards the folks living in North America and Western European countries would be able to see the group video call option on their Android and iOS app after updating them. People elsewhere would have to wait until the end of this month to get their hands on this update. One of the most interesting features of this group video calling facility is the number of users that can be involved in the chats. You can invite up to 24 people to chat with you on the app. We would like to point here that Google Hangouts can only support video chats of up to 10 people.


The question that you might be asking now is how on earth so many people are going to get accommodated on a single smartphone screen without distorting the quality of video call? The answer lies in the partnership between Intel and Microsoft. Intel and Microsoft have tied up to make sure that SILK Super Wide Band audio codec runs on Azure cloud servers so that cloud computing does the heavy lifting for such large conversations instead of the smartphone. The next secret lies in the way how the participants are cleverly arranged on the app. While you remain on the lower right hand corner of the screen you can arrange participants in a grid view. If you wish to enlarge someone whom you are talking to then you can switch to focus view where the active speaker gets the bigger screen share. Alternatively you can select any user and pin them in the central view.


Skype has even made it easier for non-Skype users to join into the conversation. You can invite anyone to join your video call by sending them a secret link via email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter or Facebook. If they have Skype installed on their smartphone or PC the app will fire up with the video conversation. If they do not have Skype app, the link will redirect them to web.skype.com is now available globally on their browsers where they can join the video call.

If you have tried out this service then please let us know in the comment section below.

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