What is Skype?

Skype is a little piece of software that lets you make free calls to anyone else on Skype, anywhere in the world. Also, until the end of the year you can also make free calls to landlines and mobiles in the US and Canada from Skype. And even though the calls are free, they are really excellent quality. If you and your friends, family or business contacts are using webcams, you can also make free video calls. You can even call landlines and mobile phones at really cheap per minute rates (and there’s no setup or subscription fee).

Do more than just calling Just like instant messengers, you can also use Skype to chat and not just with one other person at a time, but with up to 100 people in a group chat. If it’s a really nice group chat, you can bookmark it and find it later, which is handy for persistent chats with family or business contacts.

Find people to talk to Simply find and add contacts to your contact list, and when you have people on your list, you can see if they’re online, offline, busy or not sitting at their computer right now.

Importing contacts lets you find people among your contacts who are already on Skype. Even if they’re not using Skype yet, you can still call your Microsoft Outlook contacts directly from Skype.

Shared Groups is handy when your contact list is full of friends and family. You can then easily organise them by creating and managing groups of contacts. And with Shared Groups, all your friends or your latest project group can stay in touch and be automatically updated when a new person joins the group.

It just works. No worries Skype works on most kinds of computers — Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Pocket PCs. Calls, chats and file transfers work between all kinds of computers.

Skype automatically encrypts calls, chats and file transfers before sending it through the internet so no-one can intercept your call, text or file transfer. And it’s completely free of advertising, so you won’t be disturbed by annoying pop-ups or banners.

Useful things that cost a little You can talk to anyone on Skype over the Internet for free, and you’ll always be able to do that. There are some other useful things you can do on Skype that aren’t free (but they’re pretty cheap, actually).

Skype features overview

Skype has designed lots of clever features to contacting people even easier. From calling your friends and family, to meeting new people and managing your calls.

• Skype calling — Skype has all the features of an ordinary phone so it’s even easier to manage your calls.
• Video calling — see who you are talking to at the same time as speaking to them.
• Add Skype and SkypeOut contacts — Add contacts who use Skype and those who use ordinary phones so you can call more people.
• Organising groups — group contacts under certain names and share them with your contacts so they can talk to them too.
• Basic chat and emoticons — when it’s not convenient to call, chat or Instant Message (IM) your contacts.
• Group chat — for when it’s easier to chat or Instant Message (IM) all your friends at once.
• Profile settings — change how you appear to the world and let people know a bit about you.
• Conference calling — talk to more than one friend at a time.
• Import contacts — search your address book to find friends and family that already have a Skype name and start calling them for free.
• View Outlook contacts — view and call your Microsoft Outlook contacts quickly and directly from your Skype contact list.
• Quickfilter and Speed-Dial — find Skype contacts, recent chats and SkypeOut contacts quickly and easily, then enter their Skype name to call them back quickly.

Website: Skype.com

Have you used Skype? Please leave a comment and let us know about your experience.