Skype

Skype

Contains adsIn-app purchases

About this app

Skype keeps the world talking. Say “hello” with an instant message, voice or video call, no matter what device they use Skype on. Chat with the new Bing in Skype, and get AI-powered answers, recommendations, and inspiration. Skype is available on phones, tablets, PCs, and Macs.

• Video calls – Don’t just hear the cheers, see them! Get together with 1 or 49 of your friends and family on a HD video call. Watch everyone’s smiles and cries when you tell them “We’re engaged!!!"
• Chat – Reach people instantly. Send messages to your friends, grab someone’s attention with @ mentions or create a group chat to plan a family reunion.
• Bing in Skype – Chat with the new Bing in your individual and group chats to get AI-powered answers, right within the context of your conversations. Ask for recommendations to help make plans together and get inspired and have fun by asking Bing for ideas.
• Share – Send photos and videos with your family and friends. Save shared photos and videos to your camera roll. Share your screen to make travel plans with friends or present designs to your team.
• Voice calls – Camera shy? Make voice calls to anyone in the world on Skype. You can also call mobile and landlines at low rates.
• Express yourself – Liven up conversations with emoticons, GIFs, stickers, images from your device or web.
• SMS - Use Skype to send SMS messages to mobiles world-wide.

Skype to Skype calls are free. Operator data charges may apply. We recommend using an unlimited data plan or WiFi connection.

Microsoft Account required. Bing in Skype is available via the Bing preview waitlist. To learn more and sign-up visit: https://www.bing.com/new

• Privacy and Cookies policy: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=507539
• Microsoft Services Agreement: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=530144
• EU Contract Summary: https://go.skype.com/eu.contract.summary

Access Permissions:
All permissions are optional and require consent (you can continue using Skype without granting these permissions, but certain features may not be available).

• Contacts - Skype can sync and upload your device contacts to Microsoft's servers so that you can easily find and connect with your contacts that already use Skype.
• Microphone - The microphone is needed for people to hear you during audio or video calls or for you to record audio messages.
• Camera - The camera is needed for people to see you during video calls, or for you to be able to take photos or videos whilst you’re using Skype.
• Location - You can share your location with other users or use your location to help find relevant places near you.
• External Storage - Storage is needed to be able to store photos or to share your photos with others you may chat with.
• Notifications - Notifications allow users to know when messages or calls are received even when Skype is not actively used.
• Read Phone state - Access to phone state allows you to place a call on hold when a regular phone call is in progress.
• System Alert Window - This setting allows Skype screensharing, which requires access to all information on the screen or played on the device whilst you record or broadcast content.

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoy using Skype, the built in live translator is a plus. The issue I'm having with the program is while in a video call, if I switch to view another app and come back to Skype, the video is reduced by about a third. Also, the video does not work unless the service area is good. Other video call applications do not have an issue in a lower quality service area. I have a Google Pixel 6 pro phone.

The underlying VOIP technology is great, but the interface on Android is a mess. A call comes through, and it's a crapshoot as to what sort of experience I'll get trying to answer. It will either be in walkie-talkie mode SCREAMING in my ear, or it might be at normal phone volume. Then good luck actually ending the call. Notifications come many minutes after a missed call, or you'll get missed call notifications hours after a successful call. The Skype service seems to have no way of knowing that I'm connected successfully on my PC version of Skype, and will begin ringing - notifying me of a call that I initiated and am currently engaged in. This frustrating experience resulted in this review, as well as me uninstalling the app.

Edit: Calls no longer work. I can receive calls and hear the caller, but they can't hear me. Definitely going to stop paying for this garbage. Calls work OK, but it won't play voicemails. I have cleared the cache and reinstalled the app. It just doesn't work. Support forums show this has been an issue on the mobile Skype apps for years. I assume at this point they have no real interest in fixing it.

What's new

- Ask Bing to draw and create images in 1:1 chats
- Modernised and refreshed sign-in screen
- Auto-play for back-to-back audio messages
- Quick access to search prompts in the search bar
- Interact directly with Bing chat prompts
- Bug fixes and stability improvements

Visit https://go.skype.com/whatsnew for more details.