Mac 2.5 with SMS goes Gold
If you haven’t yet downloaded the newest version of Skype for Mac, take a deep breath and then download it now. Since Beta we’ve fixed many bugs and made it easier to use. You can now send SMS’ straight from the History menu or see when your voicemail subscription expires in the “My Account” area. There are numerous other improvements that happened behind the scenes but make using Skype for Mac more pleasant than ever before.
Make a Video call in this version, and you will notice we have introduced a new video codec that significantly improves the quality of video calling. Power users can take this one step further, tweaking some settings. See Skype Garage for more if you’re brave. (Requires changing some settings to Skype’s xml files to give you near HD quality Video calls)
We’ve even added a nifty little birthday reminder feature, to help you impress your Skype contacts (and secure an invitation to the 
). We have also introduced clickable mood messages and a few new emoticons. Download and enjoy.
See the brand new birthday reminder in action below:
You can find the release notes on developer.skype.com
Can’t find Mac-specific instructions for this 640×480 video. Could you give minimum system requirements? Is ffmpeg really needed or does it use Quicktime? Is changing the xml enough/what do we need terminal for?
Hey i was just wondering, are you ever gonna realse a mac verison that can use the extras?
thanks
Thanks for the new version!
I wonder what I have to to to get the “interface” that’s shown in the screenshots on Skypes info-site, About Skype for Mac. I don’t like the plain, dead interface that I have now.
thedwizzy, the link to instructions have been changed and are mac specific now. Skype for Mac uses QuickTime, no need to worry about ffmpeg. I also removed the Terminal comment – it’s what I usually use to modify xml
richardtafs, thanks for pointing that out. It seems our screenshotters can’t keep up with all the new features we keep delivering! Do you mean you prefer the design of the older client? (I.e 1.4.x) ?
yayitssami, we are continually working to improve the mac client to add the features that users want, so we’ll take your comments on board when planning/writing the next great thing from Skype for Mac.
Weeew! Awesome. The birthday feature is pretty cool too. This also means the 3.0 Beta can’t be too far down the road, right!?
I’m glad to see something new though. Thanks!
Thanks for this new version! Nice work! Very happy that you’ve worked on a better video quality!
A major improvement needed: place contacts in groups, like Family, School, London, etc. The long scrolling list is hard to read and use. Groups would also make it easier to arrange for multi-party conversations. The Mac interface is very primitive and an insult to loyal Mac users.
From the SMS Blog: “The only options displayed are for ‘Audio Output” and “Audio Input” but not “Ringing”. . . . It makes detecting incoming calls whilst not wearing the headset impossible. This despite Ryan downloading the Beta and being able to see the 3rd option…as shown in the announcement above.”
I agree wholeheartedly with this complaint. I had hoped that this would be fixed in this “Gold” version for Mac, but, alas, I still do not see any “Ringing” option in my audio preferences. If my headset is plugged in (as it is almost always), and I don’t happen to be staring at my computer screen at the moment of the ring, I have no way of knowing if someone is calling.
Please tell us how to enable this option. Thanks!
to will-howarth: I feel simplicity is the best thing about the mac version of skype. Primitive is a bit harsh. I agree there is the need for the groups feature here as well but I would no want it at the cost of keeping Skype looking simple like it does now.
Less is more…
Ok, cool…
Birthday feature, nice…
But will we get contact grouping some day? I would kind of like that…
I should be able to drag-and-drop contacts from my AddressBook. It should be nicely integrated, so that when I update contact information (including the Skype ID) in AddressBook, it’s automatically updated in Skype.
Also, I can’t add a phone number to someone that’s already listed in my Contacts. It seems I have to create a separate entry for each method, e.g., “Nate,” “Nate mobile,” “Note home.” That seems awfully silly… and time consuming…
Could it be at all possible to allow the dial-pad to be used on a conference call? Right now if I call Skype-out, while there’s someone else on the line, I can’t use DTMF unless I blast it down the microphone.
The Windows version does this. I don’t remotely care how the implementation works (it doesn’t have to be pretty – if need be, it could just be a check box in the settings that allows me to have the dial pad in a separate window the whole time). Just anything to allow this functionality. Thanks.
The feature I am most missing from other IM clients is an indicator that the other party is typing a message. As for the interface I like it simple. Call and video quality are great and I’m sure will only improve. Thanks for your hard work on continuing development.
Thanks for the new version!
I moved to Mac recently and I don’t miss a single feature from the Windows version.
Using the latest version of Skype (2.5 Gold) on Mac OS 10.4.8 (and as with previous versions) I find that setting an account mood message fails to save from a Mac. I need to log in to Skype on a Windows machine to correctly update mood message!
(MacBook Pro Intel Core2Duo 15″)
PS: New video codec and near-HD video mod works fine. I used Dreamweaver to modify .xml file.
Birthday notifications……this only happens on the day of? I don’t see this on my screen yet. Also, clickable mood messages….does that mean I can add a web link in the mood message…..please explain. I also noticed that the ‘offline’ icon is now orange, but most of my contacts are still showing the old gray X….. Can someone clear up these few small issues for me? Thanks!
There’s a difference between HD and DVD quality, especially when it’s just VGA quality
Not for my Powerbook G4, seemingly, though.
my skype still using ver 1.5.0.77 (Beta), because i tried thousands of time to upgrade newer version, but all newer version caused chat windows failed to pop up. i did report to skype support but so far no solution from them. Hope all experts here can help me solve the problem… thx
mac.tay, I’d appreciate it if you could please log a support ticket here or log a bug on our public bug tracker here. It might also be worth noting the language of Skype you’re using.
norrisk, birthday notifications – yes. It means if you type in http://www.britneyspears.com in your mood message (MM), other people can simply click on that link when they view your MM. Also the icon is orange when people are forwarding cals to another number, usually their mobile/cell/hand phones.
revbner, watch this space.
writerinresidence, it seems you need Tiger for this feature – do you have Tiger? (10.4+) ?
zac_grose, thanks we’ve taken this onboard and we’ll work this into future versions.
will-howarth/bertgoethals, someday – yes. It’s something we want to make sure we do right on mac, since we have the power of quickfilter (like spotlight). We are working on it, we said we’d bring you Video + SMS and we did, so watch this space.
Thanks Ryan for the feedback. However, you said the orange call icon denotes someone forwarding a call….. and one of my contacts is showing the orange icon next to her name in the ‘offline’ mode. I know she isn’t forwarding a call as she isn’t even using the computer or account since it is at the office and it is the weekend. Computer is offline and her name has moved to the offline position below those online. Hers is the only contact showing an orange icon so I’m not sure if the problem is on her end or mine.
Skype for Mac is really great. It is still a little behind the version 3 for Windows based PC, but the audio quality is great (maybe even better). I really enjoy the video chatting, but I am missing the video controls (like brightness, contrast and so on). As a result, I always look “white” and I cannot compensate for that (I have to close the courtains in my room, but sometimes that is not enough).
Is there a way (maybe with Macam) to modify these settings? Thank you!
When can we download the games??
hi to all of you; I am writing from Italy; the new version is really a step forward; I am using an old mac (G3700) and Skype works (obviously with some acceptable problem) but it works indeed even in video; so I have a question for the skype developers: as it is the case for the higher resolution is it not possible to have a lower level setting? suppose to set horizontal and vertical resolution to a lower level, to set the PAL signal and to use a lower coulour number simply modifying the .xml file?
why not if in this way a larger number of persons can enjoy to use skype; thanks for your new version; it is really very good; with the older one my webcam was blocked and the program crashed; now the situation is closer to Mercury; it works;
one thing again from Italy; to change the .xml file each text editor is sufficient: text edit, bbedit; I use the last version of BBedit 8.2.6; no problem
For me, the 2.5 release isn’t so golden… I’ve had two serious issues with Skype 2.5 since the 2.5.0.63 beta release, and I mistakenly didn’t say anything until now as I figured they were so serious that I was sure there’d be a flurry of complaints from others…
Anyhow, the issues are these:
1. The call/video window insists on staying in front of all my apps during a call. Really annoying.
2. On video calls, I get intermittent, extremely painful, loud static, and and the people I’m calling are subjected to it as well, forcing me to switch to iChat for video conferences with other Mac users… video conferencing with windoze users isn’t really an option now with this release. It gives new meaning to the phrase “you hurt the ones you love the most”.
So now I’m wondering if it’s something I’m doing wrong.
Is no one else having these issues??
Would it be possible to have a preference setting for when voice mail picks up an incoming call? I often have to return a call because I’m too late picking it up..
Or, can we already hack in to the prefs. to change this timing? Let me know..
Thank you for keeping us Mac users up to date with new upgrades for Skype.
Unfortunately, there are still a few bugs that I am experiencing with this new version.
1. When I log back onto skype, my previous chat doesn’t show up. Instead there is a partial history of the chat before that.
2. Trying to use the menu bar to look up recent chats no longer works.
3. I am also showing in “recent chats” a chat, which is a message left for me by a contact, that I can’t access. In other words when I highlight that chat, nothing happens. And when I highlight it and click on it, nothing happens.
I’m a bit bothered that I now have to wait until both the contact who left me the message and I are logged on at the same time to see if I can read it.
4. The chat window with a particular contact no longer has the link at the top for viewing that chat history.
5. This is really minor, but still a bug.. my emoticon drop down menu keeps disappearing and unlike the last version (where I experienced the same problem), I can no longer access emoticons from “edit” in the menu bar.
Maybe I’m missing something but my iSight preview has swapped itself back to not being mirrored. Has this disappeared? or have i just temporarily forgotten where to get to this? I liked not confusing my brain when trying to centre my head in the screen.. heh. Otherwise thanks for getting it up to 2.5. Love it! Roll on 3.
im from the philippines and i dont know if this is the appropriate site for my querry rather than posting this in the forum site. i just shifted to a mac and i cant seem to install correctly the latest skype version for mac. everytime i press on the skype logo upon moving it from the desktop to the applications folder, it just “bounces” off without installing the program… what could be causing this? i tried several times, however, it keeps on bouncing off… i already removed the previous skype version as well and it still doesnt work… hope someone can enlighten me on this… thanks..
Thanks for the new version. I just tried this out on my new iMac running the latest OS. Unfortunately the echo is so bad that the quality of voice call is almost unbearable. I didn’t have a headset since it was a group conference call. For the same machine, it is reported that iChat doesn’t seem to have this issue. Also, checked the Skype release notes and looks it has been already reported https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCM-178. I’m just wondering when this critical issue can be fixed.
after a while (about 30 minutes) of talking on skype (mac to PC) I get a really loud white noise on My end of the conversation (mac end). This white noise covers my friend’s voice completely. My friend using his PC does not hear the white noise and he can still hear me normally. The noise will suddenly stop after a while or, if I pause the conversation and unpause it the noise goes away but returns after a while again (30 minutes more). If I use the video feature the noise comes in only after a few minutes (3 or 5) and it keeps occuring more frequently. I’ve read online other people having this same problem PLEASE FIX THIS BUG!
^ Ditto of the above. I have exactly the same problem as lacagada when calling from a mac to a PC. It would be Super Special Awesome if this issue could be fixed, since it is especially annoying.