Skype for iPhone will run in the background with iPhone OS 4
We’ve updated our iPhone app – you can now make video calls.
Update: Skype for iPhone update for iOS 4 coming soon.
Skype’s David Ponsford has just left the stage at Apple’s developer event, where he demoed a version of Skype for iPhone running in the background.
What does this mean? Previously, when you navigated away from Skype, it would quit and you’d be offline – unable to receive chats or calls. With iPhone OS 4, when you leave the Skype app, it’ll still be there in the background.
Skype on iPhone running in the background – image courtesy of Gizmodo.
Whether you switch to another app or just put the phone in your pocket, Skype will be able to receive calls. When a call comes in, you’ll see a notification on the screen, and you’ll be able to pick it up with a single tap.
With iPhone OS 4, we hope Skype will become a whole lot more convenient for all of you who use it. iPhone OS 4 will be coming to your phone this summer, so stay tuned for more details nearer the time 
FYI. Spoke with Apple techs last week and pointed out that Apple’s website specifically claims that Skype will run in the background (multitasking). The techs didn’t know anything about this. After a day of research, the Apple techs concluded that Skype didn’t work in the background. This makes Apple and Skyp look bad.
Skype is more than likely caught between two evil empires: Apple and ATT. ATT probably wishes VOIP would go away, and Apple is afraid to anger them. Meanwhile, Skype is inept with their client communications, and probably afraid to anger either of the two. Dealing with an evil genius like Jobs is probably no picnic. It’s his way or the highway. Too bad for consumers. Our only hope is that an open architecture system like Android catches up and catches on. We need to see some real competition here. I never thought I would say this, but I’m beginning to miss Microsoft. But, they are so far behind I don’t ever expect them to catch up.
I installed the update this morning, launched it, tested it, loved the update. I charged my phone to 100%, unplugged it, left Skype running and within an hour or minimal use my battery has gone down a solid 10%. Is it my imagination or is this sucking the battery life a bit too soon?
Hi cesar.ponciano, not your imagination, mine did the same, now 2 hours later my battery is down to 58%!
The same is happening to me!
Check your skype settings under the iPhone settings and ensure the “don’t auto lock” is set to off so your screen doesn’t stay on all the time after you access skype
Loaded newest Skype on iPhone 4 this morning. Battery at 95%. At 12pm I opened Skype and signed in then quit the app. At 1:30 I was down to 72%! By 2:30, 50%.
This is horrible. At 3pm, I deleted Skype.
Skype – Please fix. And, while you are at it, add Video Chat. Though with the way it is now, I probably would only get 2 minutes worth of time.
I updated Skype, it run in the background 1 time. After that the app has to sign in every single time. Skype did it again, promising a lot delivering nothing….Very, very dissapointed.
I had the same experience. Skype really drains battery life. Just add PUSH support!!! It works for any other IM and doesn’t require as much battery as yours “background” version. Don’t get my wrong. It’s great that Skype can run in background and it’s very usefull nevertheless after 10 minutes the app should switch to PUSH only and kill itself.
Same experience: the new Skype for iPhone drains battery life at an extraordinary speed, without delivering either background presence or push very well.
Upgraded to new skype previous night, went to bed with full charge. By next morning the phone was dead…. skype sucks all the power. deleted immediately.
Same here.
Multitasking for iPhone (iPod, iPad) is a bad concept, maybe it was necessary for marketing purposes, but technically speaking what your iPhone application needs to do in background? This is not a PC, used for number crunching, database indexing, or any other background processing, and moreover UI is not multi-window; you can see only one application at time. Skype pear-to-pear protocol in iPhone application can’t be the same as in PC application, it will always drain the battery. Skype application should use iOS Notifications and be very passive in backround mode, for this they should use some “proxy” server (like Numbuzz, Fring or IM+) that will keep mobile user presence on p2p network, or radicaly change their p2p protocol for mobile user nodes. In the mean time, the “Exit” button will be very useful.
I’m so glad I found this blog! The last several days, my iphone 4 battery was barely making it to just after lunch, whereas the week for I could till 11pm for the first time as an iphone user without charging! I have been adjusting email settings, disabling wi-fi, disabling other notifications from apps, and still, it was draining like crazy. It is the new skype version that is killing my phone and sucking the battery down extremely fast. Wish I could roll back to previous version. But may just need to delete it for now like svnp10 did. I second what sectroyer says about hibernating itself in a lower battery drain mode when not active. Loved the new background, but not at the expense of wasting my battery.
I’ve had the same problem – battery would go down on average 10-15%/hour. And the phone’s surface would get hot. Instead of uninstalling Skype I just signed out – and that seems to be doing the trick – battery down only 1% in the last hour.
I was looking forward to Skype running in the background but all it does is drain my battery by lunch time. It drains 50% of my battery in about 3-4 hours.
Every time I use it, I HAVE to remember to close it after or I’m f**ked for the rest of the day without a phone.
I understand that this is a feature of the sdk so perhaps Skype can’t improve the battery life problem. Maybe it is back to the drawing board with push notification.
If skype is running in the background, what happens with data usage? (I only get 500mb on my contract). Or is data transfered only when we open the app?
and yes it definately seems to drain the battery
Making Skype running in the background is a wrong strategy. PUSH should be used instead. I don’t want my battery to go off easily. Perhaps should learn from Viber or Whatsapp.
And no mention yet of the great privacy/secrecy breach! No way to delete history – and no matter what you do on an iPhone previous chat messages can return to embarrass you at any time. Also to resurface to embarrass whoever you were talking to at the time by pouring into their open skype chat window – whatever machine they happen to be on! Rules it out for any business use whatsoever!
Has anyone noticed that Skype will turn on by itself? If you are in a voice conversation on the iphone app but want to look at another app (i.e. calendar) you can Home button and launch another app, Skype gives a visual indication that you’re still connected on your voice conversation by displaying a bold red bar at the top of the display that says “Skype” in the middle. Two times now I’ve noticed, days after having last used Skype, that while my iTouch4 is idle but not sleeping, I’ll happen to catch that red bar appearing on its own with out any action on my part. The red bar seems to indicate that hardware (microphone) is being activated. When I noticed this, I launched Skype to see if I was online still, but it showed “Offline”. So, if I’m offline and not using Skype then why is that red Skype yes-i’m-running-in-the-background bar spontaneously appearing? Remember reading what happened with the Chinese?
@marcelloard thanks for the comment – we’re aware of this, and investigating.
this app is so amazing, it works so crisp and clear over iPhone. I read an article about this app at and used it right away. I must say I was so impressed.
My IPhone contract is up and I’m trying to decide what to do. I usually use my phone around the house and have good wifi coverage. I’d had SKYPE on my iPhone but without push, it was worthless for incoming calls.
My question is if it works in the background do I even need a phone? Can I just set it up on an iTouch? I have 4.2.1, but could upgrade IF IT WILL WORK in the background. I’ve loaded the most recent version onto my current iPhone but can’t make it work in the background. Can you clarify?
I’m also ticked that you eliminated the SKYPE credits I’d had.