Skype is a telecommunication app that offers video calls and text messaging. It was developed by Skype Technologies (original authors: Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn) and initially released in August 2003. Skype is one of the most famous instant messaging apps and has over one billion installs on Android alone. In this article, we discuss some of the app’s key features, as well as some additional information.

Key Features

Here are some of Skype’s main features:

Keep in Touch: Users can make high-quality audio and video calls to people anywhere in the world. Instant messaging and call-forwarding are also available, for times when users are not immediately available to chat
Group Calls: With the Skype video chat app, you can enjoy free group video calls with up to one hundred people - this feature is supported on most devices.
Screen Sharing: In order to enhance the interaction between users during a call, Skype allows you to share your screens - this means sharing presentations, photos, and more.
File Transfer: This app allows you to send various types of files with a total size of up to 300 MB.
Call Recording: Whether it is to go again through a class or relive a special moment, this is possible - you can record your calls, in case your memory fails you.
Live Subtitles: To make your experience easier, Skype offers a special feature - live subtitles.
Background Effects: If your house is messy or if you just want to have fun, then you should know that Skype allows you to blurry your background or even completely customize it with your own photos.

Is Skype Safe?

Even though it is not very opaque, we recommend reading the official Privacy policy in order to take note of the way Skype uses your data and ensures your privacy. It has been argued that the software doesn’t use end-to-end encryption by default, thus making your message conversations visible by Microsoft.

Is Skype Free?

You can download and use Skype for free. However, it contains some optional in-app purchases.

System Requirements

The version linked to this page is for Windows and requires 1 GHz processor (at least), 512MB of RAM (or more), and DirectX v9.0 or higher. Here are links to other versions and the respective system requirements:

Mac: MacOS X 10.10 or higher.
Linux deb, Linux RPM, : 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04+, 64-bit Debian 8.0+, 64-bit OpenSUSE 13.3+, 64-bit Fedora Linux 24+.
Android: the required version varies with devices.
iPhone: iOS 10.0 or later.

Images: Skype Official