Skype to crowd mobile screens with launch of group calling

13 Jan 2016

To mark its 10th anniversary, Skype has announced that it’s to add group calling to mobile for the first time in a move that’s likely to crowd our mobile screens.

It feels like less than 10 years ago since Skype first introduced free Skype-to-Skype calls for its users, but the company is marking its 10th anniversary by expanding the services it offers to those using it on smartphones.

For Skype, mobile calling has only really become a big deal in the last six years after it introduced free video calling between devices, and now, as part of this launch, multiple users can engage in the same call, which will surely be a struggle on some of the phones with smaller screens.

Announcing the news on its blog, Skype said that it should become available for general release in the coming weeks on Windows Phone, iOS and Android, but pre-registration is also available if you want to try out a beta release.

It’s something of a late reply from Skype to some of its competitors, however, with the likes of Google Hangouts already being one of the favoured group video chats online and in business, with it giving you the ability to talk to up 10 people in video chat at one time.

With this mind, it is still unclear how many people exactly will be able to use the service on mobile at any given time, but based off what is available on the desktop version of Skype, it could be similar to having up to 25 people on voice-only calls, and 10 people on video calls.

Skype group video call image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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