Skype for Mac with video coming up — but don’t use the buggy version
Video support for Skype for Mac will be one of our major acts this year. You can tell that by just taking a look at our various blog posts and the comments here, especially in the Mac blog. Whatever we post, we have people asking “WHERE IS VIDEO FOR SKYPE FOR MAC? GIMME SKYPE FOR MAC WITH VIDEO.” It’s great to see this much interest and we’ll surely meet it by bringing you a fine video version with the superb quality you’ve grown to expect from Skype.
Among all the excitement, we recently learned that there is an early development version of Skype for Mac with video floating around some warez sites. What you need to know about this version is that it is an internal unstable development version, and thus it is extremely buggy. It may and will destroy your contacts and other data. It is completely unsupported and if you experience problems due to using this version, you’re on your own. The only way to make sure you’re getting the correct and official version of Skype is to download it directly from skype.com, or from the pages of one of our official [partners](http://about.skype.com/partners.html).
Another thing worth noting about the video part is that the version going around is two months old, and thus is definitely not the “latest and greatest” that you’ll see once we release it. It’s not yet ready for primetime, but will be soon. It sounds old, but please bear with us. Not much longer to go.
Here’s a screenshot of an actual video call with Skype for Mac.
Good one! It really has been too long!
…hope it will include Skype SMS too!
And what is this!? No estimate on release date!?
It has been said many times – Skype does not talk release dates. You wanted to hear if video is in works, there you go – it is all stated in the blog post, plus a screenshot.
It looks absolutley fabulous!
GREAT !!! Can’t wait the official release !!!
He’s making sort of a crazy face.
RARWRUTORROORR WANT VIDEO SKYPE ON MY MAC NOW
Can you give us any sort of timeframe? Days? Weeks? Months?
Indeed, the girl looks absolutely fabulous
great, can’t wait to get the final version! :–)
Very cool! I’m studying in Melbourne, Australia and use Skype to chat with my parents in Singapore. Often a missing element is the visual feel. I’ve got an iSight cam but its of no use without any adequate video conferencing tool. Please PLEASE bring on Skype Video for Mac ASAP! It’s been quite a long wait…I can vouch that many will be eternally grateful!
Excellent news… can’t wait to experience it!
Funny, somebody posts a hack, and hop! some news! Good news anyway, and thanks to the team!
THX THX THX THX THX and THX…. Yeahhhhh and it seems Great. Continue like this and I’ll send you a box of Belgian chocolate ;o)…
I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT!!!!!
Very nice.
I can wait for a working version. Who wants the headache of some unstable software?
Not me.
The release of “stable” software is sometimes buggy enough. LOL.
Hopefully it will be as good video chat quality as ichat otherwise no point.
You guys are champions. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be nuts.
The UI changes look brilliant also! WOW!
I don’t mind if it’s buggy. I want it right now!
Yay! I’ve been eyeing the new MacBooks since they came out… should be getting one in December and having Video!Skype would be teh pwn.
I certainly hope that this latest news will be the final call for all Skype fans to “wait patiently” for the next release of Skype for Mac. I readily admit, I’m a bit skeptical but well, I’m still in full support of Skype…just don’t want to bring my expectations up and potentially end up being disappointed if the version comes up a few months later. You never know!
Are there any information about the supported webcams??
thanks
Thank goodness! Finally, living proof that they are working on Video BETA. Keep up the good work!
However, I agree with the point yazombie made. How come ONLY when a hack comes up, Skype seems to start working? Concluding: keep making more hacks to make the final version come out, make even more hacks if you want 2.5 BETA, make thousands of hacks if you want 2.5 stable version. Skype, you’re giving us the wrong impression!
Thank you Skype! It’s been a LONG wait.
Sounds great – was the bug about auto gain control and certain usb mics addressed? I would love to hear that it once again allows us to disable agc in the mac version.
You got me wrong, phillip.shiu! I think the team has been working on Mac v2 for weeks if not months (and don’t forget they had to build a UB version and did it rather fast).
What I’m saying is that I was waiting for a statement from Skype, a comitment on our platform, and I finally got it. But why did I have to wait for this leak (which I got and trashed 5 min later) to hear it.
What I’m wondering is: did someone at Skype Mac team get bored of the whining on this blog and found a solution to force management out of its lair?…
Now, I don’t want to ask a really stupid question, here…
But will this be BOTH VIDEO and AUDIO? Or video only?
This is currently my biggest frustration with the Messenger platform… no audio – just video. And with iChat – well, connectivity with AIM users is just so hit and miss!
Come on, Skype! Beat ‘em to the punch!! You will have a loyal Mac fan base for years!
Yazombie: yes, and I still agree with you. I wrote my comment late at night after a hetic day, so I wasn’t thinking. You wrote what I ment to write.
Once again, I apoligize for the lack of thought last night.
yazombie wrote: “I think the team has been working on Mac v2 for weeks if not months (and don’t forget they had to build a UB version and did it rather fast).”
I wonder why they had to write the UB version so fast. It’s been known for more than a year now that Apple was going to migrate to Intel processors, and the documentation for writing UB software have been on the web for months. I suspect they waited until Apple released the Intel machines at MWSF in january, but why did they wait until the machines was released? They could very well have started to prepare Skype for dual platforms last fall, at least.
I agree with the comment about CONNECTIVITY between Mac and PC users. The iChat and AIM saga of being ‘hit and miss’ is a real pain. I know it’s all to do with Firewalls/Ports and general router settings, but Skype in audio mode always works so well for me with NO adjustments, so WILL the video version work as well????? If it does not, then will Skype work on ways around this and give advice on how to solve it?
I’m looking forward to GOOD video/audio chat with SKYPE!
dastrom
No idea. However to put things in context.
Adobe which is selling it’s web bundle upgrades at +/- 1000 euros did not release UB versions yet and Quark with upgrades at +/- 400 euros for one product is releasing the UB version this month… and here you have it.
Now it’s all ok!
@ dastrom
“They could very well have started to prepare Skype for dual platforms last fall, at least.”
Yes, and they could as well have dropped our platform all the same. Others would have. They waited for the machines, maybe, well, guess what? It’s much easier to test a product like Skype with a machine than without one. Would they have released a buggy version (and they surely didn’t), I can hardly imagine the whining here.
Like I said previously, Skype is not a right, no more than Access or Premiere or (to my despair) DragonSpeach in French for MacOS. They made a proof they keep our platform on target, as well as Linux, and that’s the point!
From time to time, it’s good to be just polite and say thank you!
To the whole Mac team at Skype: thank you again for your work, and can’t wait to see more!
Will it be iSight compatible?
Mac user are only 3 to 4% of Skype users so it’s not a priority to develop a Mac version. It’s sad…
It’s very sad indeed that a Mac version is no priority. If it was, the percentage of Mac-users would get much higher in no time. Simply because there is no simple cross-platform videomessaging solution yet.
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s looking forward to (finally) use the Isight to vidiphone with all my PC-friends
please get the mac video out! and make sure it works together with PC video too.
Frankly, I’m more interested in voice conference limits. On Core Duo Windows boxes, you can host up to 10 people on conf calls – this is very useful and I look forward to it – far more than video.
Great, great, great!. Please, release it ASAP!
I have been waiting so long for this that I finally went and downloaded Sightspeed and found that it works very well between PCs and Macs. The only trouble is that there are few people on Sightspeed and many on Skype. So I to will be looking forward to a video version of Skype, hopefully soon.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great news, I can’t wait. Have been using Skype more and more with clients and it will be great to collaborate with a camera
What a great news, I’ve been waiting that since 2 months. I moved from Switzerland and am now in Singapore. Took my Ibook with me and 1st thing when arrived here, download Skype and brought a Isight. What a desapointment when I read that video was not yet ready for mac users…
Just hope it will be soon.
Thanks anyway
OK, now this is getting far beyond a joke. The original post was three weeks ago and still no officially-sanctioned video-enabled Skype is available. (AND it took a leaked release bfore they even bothered to give us the proof that they were actually getting on with it)
People are clamouring for the dodgy beta simply for the video capabilities. Forum-admins are having to squash the posts providing links, as the-powers-that-be totally miss the point that the only way to stop people posting the link is for an official version to be available. Simple supply/demand. Cut off the demand, people won’t have to supply.
If, as the original post states, they want people to not use this old-and-buggy version then it’s past due that they release an official version. It was past due when the orignal post went out. It was past due at the beginning of June. Heck, it was past due back in March/April. (Windows-using friends were surprised that Skype still didn’t have Mac-video)
I haven’t gone for the leaked beta myself, but purely because I want a version that’s at least officially acknowledged by Skype. And that doesn’t have bugs that were probably fixed weeks back.
But it’s getting annoying now. I’m “playing by the rules” and have nothing to show for it. (Pun fully intended) Where’s the benefit?
Yes, Mac users are the minority. But that’s why this version is totally overdue. All my friends use Windows, and they all use either MSN or Skype. Skype, in their defense, at least publically states that a video-enabled version is well underway. But it doesn’t change the simple fact that if any of my contacts want to briefly show me something then there’s a whole palava of them having to take a picture, send a picture, wait for me to receive it. All in more time that ti would have taken to fire up a webcam, show off and switch back off.
All we want is feature parity. It’s long overdue. And with the leaked version out there, the only way to stop people using it it to provide the legit alternative.
Are there any alternatives for Skype to have video on Mac?
I’m fed up with having to wait for this “soon to be released” Skyp version.
I have to mention that in a previous post (above somewhere) there was mention of some software that I had not heard of before. That software is SIGHTSPEED (http://www.sightspeed.com) I downloaded it and it worked between Mac and PC first time…and second time and third time…… So far I have had amazing results within the UK and from the UK to Australia. Lets hope that the Mac SKYPE version works as well as SightSpeed does.
I guess somebody will eventually post it. So …
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/videopreview.html
G4 or better apparently, amongst other caveats.
Could I please get some help from someone who might understand my problem. I’m an avid Skype user. I started when I used Windows, but switched to a Mac 18 months agao. I had no problems with Skype until a few weeks ago, when I downloaded the latest version. Two issues emerged when I downloaded that version. First, it copied all of my Palm contacts into Skype without asking whether I wanted to do that (which isn’t in itself a problem, but I’m mentioning this in case it might have caused the problem I will describe shortly). Second, Skype has now definitely become buggy. It only works about half the time I open it. When I click on a contact and try to make a call, nothing happens. I’ve tried deleting and re-downloading, but this doesn’t help. I also tried deleting the Palm files (over 3000 contacts), to see if this would solve the problem, but I don’t seem to be able to delete those files. I would be deeply grateful if anyone could help me solve this problem, because I rely on Skype a lot. Many thanks!