The Big Blog

Tell Mom "You Rock!" With A "Say it with Skype" Mother's Day Edition Video Card

Skype Will Donate to Save the Children for Each 'Mom You Rock' Video Card Created

On May 13th, how will you be honoring your mom? Don't just send her a boring card. Let mom see your smiling face and hear your voice! "Say it with Skype" just received a Mother's Day makeover. Visit our updated "Say it with Skype" page on Facebook or Skype.com and tell your mom just how much she rocks! For every video card that is sent, Skype will donate one dollar to Save the Children on behalf of its Mom's the Word campaign.*

Create the card early and schedule it for delivery on May 13th, just in case for some reason you forget to send it on Mother's Day. When you send your mom a "Say it with Skype, Mom you rock" video card you created yourself, it's almost like you are there in person.

Skype partnered with Mom Central Consulting to find out just how powerful voice and video communication can be. We found that an overwhelming majority of moms (80 percent) will be turning to technology like video chat or voice calls to share quality time with their loved ones this year because more than half won't be spending time with their loved ones this Mother's Day!**

Skype is proud to help enable meaningful communication this Mother's Day by offering products such as free voice & video calls, group video chat and low rates to landlines or mobiles virtually anywhere in the world.

Mom can't wait to see your smiling face, so visit www.facebook.com/skype and show her just how much she means to you.

*For each "Say it With Skype" video message that is sent between April 29, 2012 and May 14, 2012, Skype will donate one dollar to the Save the Children's Global Action Fund in support of Save the Children's MomsTheWord.com campaign. For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/skype
** Mom Central Consulting surveyed 1,308 Moms to understand their attitudes toward technology, and how they connect with family and friends.

Spread holiday cheer with Say it with Skype

Here at Skype, we already helped you make birthdays more fun with the "Say it with Skype" app, first launched on Facebook and now available on Skype.com. Now we're thrilled to help our community amp up the traditional holiday card.

Skype has teamed up with artists like Alice Cooper, Autumn in Disguise, Boyz II Men, The Chakras, The Cuban Brothers and Scala & Kolacny Brothers to help ring in the holidays with a new group video greeting card to send to your friends.

To send a more meaningful greeting to your family and friends, launch the Say it with Skype app, select the band, enter the recipient, and then personalize it with a fun and festive video. Those who dare can sing along with the band as they deliver their holiday carol.

Whether it's Alice Cooper singing the classic "Merry Christmas," Boyz II Men's rendition of "Silent Night," the Cuban Brothers' comedic twist on "Deck the Halls," Scala's rendition of "Sun Kissed Snow," or your very own vocal contributions, you can now remix the typical 'happy holidays' greeting courtesy of Say it with Skype.

Bring Your Social Network To Life

Back in July, Facebook video calling powered by Skype was launched. Today we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Facebook has reached yet another milestone with the launch of Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows allowing you to conduct a Facebook-to-Facebook call from within Skype. This new development in the Skype-Facebook partnership is the latest example of how Skype is removing communication barriers and making it easier to connect with friends, family and business colleagues. Our approach to social is about personal connections with people. We are on a mission to connect over one billion people and our continued partnership with Facebook brings us one step closer to this goal.

Initiating a Facebook-to-Facebook call from within Skype is quite easy; all you need to do is connect your Skype and Facebook accounts. Then, select a Facebook friend and hit the video call button in Skype- your friend simply picks up the call from Facebook. This new feature lets you maintain social connections with your Facebook friends and compliments previously announced features such as being able to see when your Facebook friends are online, read their status updates and IM them all from Skype.

Besides this great new Facebook feature, additional new features added to Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows including video rendering giving a smoother video experience for Mac users and group screen sharing for Windows users with a Premium subscription (group screen sharing is currently available for Mac users). Users who are chatting one-on-one will also be able to screen share with live video streaming.

We're excited about these new enhancements and we would love for you to download the latest version of Skype so you can bring your social network to life with Skype. If you would like to discuss this new release or have any questions, please feel free to visit our new Skype Support Network.

Skype Support Network Now Available on Facebook

A few weeks ago, we rolled out our beta of the Skype Support Network, an online community where customers can learn about Skype from experts, find answers, and share information through topic-specific discussion forums. The community is available through Skype.com, and starting today is also now available from Skype's Facebook account page.

We think there is a big appetite for information about Skype, and Skype Support Network was created in direct response to that. Having this information available within our Support Network and extended to various social media channels, such as Facebook, is part of our efforts to engage customers and help them access information they need. So, feel free to ask us a question or search our community for answers right from within Facebook or visit us at the Skype Support Network.

Skype 5.5 for Windows Update

We are pleased to announce that Skype 5.5 for Windows is now available for download.

Based on user feedback, we have made some updates from the beta version of Skype 5.5 for Windows, which launched in June, and recommend that you update now.

The Skype 5.5 for Windows update comes with a deeper Facebook integration. Without having to leave Skype, you can check out when your Facebook friends are online and instant message with them from the new Facebook Contacts Tab (located in between the Skype and Recent Contacts tabs). You can also view and update your Facebook status and even view comments or 'like' posts from your Facebook Wall, directly from Skype Home.

We have also made a number of updates to make your Skype calls on Windows even better. We've improved the controls for video and group video calls for Windows, enhanced video call reliability and made several design changes to improve your overall Skype experience.

Plus for all you emoticon fanatics, the Skype emoticons have received an update, with smoother animations that stand out. We are also introducing a few new Skype emoticons to use when words fail you.

Download Skype 5.5 for Windows now. Hit us up on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and let us know which emoticon is your favorite. You can also leave us feedback on the Skype 5.5 for Windows update below in the comments section.

We hope you enjoy the new Skype for Windows experience.

Under the Hood with Facebook Video Calling, Powered by Skype

Yesterday, Facebook and Skype launched Facebook video calling, powered by Skype, which allows users to call and see each other right from facebook.com. At Skype, we are super excited about this product, which we closely collaborated with Facebook on many of the parts of the solution in a true team effort. We think users will love its ease of use and simplicity. It combines the quality and scale of Skype video calling with the social experiences of Facebook in a way that we believe makes for a powerful combination.

Without a doubt, techies around the world will want to know how we did it. How did we integrate Skype and Facebook? Will it scale? Does it use the Skype client?

The first step of the user experience is on facebook.com. While looking at the profile page or while in a chat, users will now see buttons which allow them to initiate a video call with their friends. Those buttons are rendered as part of the Facebook Web page. When a user clicks on the "call" button, the page will check for the existence of the Skype video calling software, which is an optimized version of Skype's desktop software that powers the video calling experience; we call this the plug-in. If the Skype plug-in hasn't been used before, the user is prompted to install it. Facebook's servers interact with Skype's technology through a proprietary REST API that we have developed. Through that API, Facebook automatically creates an anonymous Skype account for new callers (or 'callees'). Our REST API also allows Facebook servers to obtain a login credential that can be used to log the user into Skype using the anonymous account.

The plug-in is in essence, a miniature version of the Skype client. We've optimized the Skype client for Facebook by removing most of the user interface and eliminating many of the features that are not needed for the Facebook application (e.g., Skype instant messaging). Our plug-in is actually composed of two distinct parts. One is the runtime, which is a standalone miniature Skype client, and the other is an actual browser plug-in. The runtime provides some simple APIs through an RPC mechanism, and the browser plug-in delivers those APIs in JavaScript for access within facebook.com. Despite its compact size and simplified UI, the runtime is Skype in all ways that matter. Our peer-to-peer technology, our firewall and NAT traversal protocols, our video and audio codecs, our media processing engine - everything that makes Skype wonderful - is there, in the runtime.

Once the plug-in has been downloaded and installed, and the caller logged into it anonymously (a process which happens automatically - invisibly to the user), a handshake takes place through Facebook's server infrastructure. This handshake alerts the 'callee' that the caller wishes to call them. By using Facebook infrastructure for this, we allow calls to be initiated prior to installation of a plug-in on the callee's computer. Together, we believe this brings real virality to this feature and reduces the barriers between people communicating.

The user interface you see for the video itself is rendered by the Skype runtime. It's the same video quality you'd expect from a normal Skype video call, since it is a normal Skype video call. It just happens to be invoked from within Facebook, and uses a slim UI.

One of Skype's challenges in providing this functionality was scale. Even though Skype leverages its P2P technology to help achieve scale, we still rely on server infrastructure for several parts of the solution. To handle all of this, Skype has substantially increased server counts and added bandwidth in all of our data centers. The actual voice and video traffic utilizes Skype's global P2P network, allowing for great quality without needing thousands of expensive servers. Together, we'll be rolling the new capability out over the next week or so and carefully monitoring load and quality as we go. As a result, some of you will see video calling buttons on Facebook, and others will not. If you see those buttons, please go ahead and click on it - you'll be able to call anyone on your Facebook friend list.

We think this is awesome technology. We've combined everything that makes Skype great - our quality, our P2P technology, our scale - with the world's number one social property on the Web, and brought those two things together in a completely seamless way.

We hope you enjoy it!

Skype CEO Tony Bates talks about making Skype video calling ubiquitous

In the following video, Tony Bates talks about Skype's leadership in video calling and recaps some important milestones over the past few weeks. He highlights today's news about Facebook video calling powered by Skype, and shares Skype's broader multi-platform strategy to bring video calling everywhere - the desktop, mobile phones, TVs and the Web.

Facebook video calling powered by Skype

Just a few weeks ago, Skype announced the ability to IM your Facebook friends or to 'Like' and comment on a Facebook status directly from Skype. Today, we are excited to announce that Skype's partnership with Facebook goes even further, as we are now making it possible to video chat with your friends right from within Facebook. This is an exciting step for us as it represents Skype's first big step on the Web, and because we know this has the potential to unlock even more conversations and make the experience on the Web even more social.

The partnership with Facebook makes fantastic business sense for Skype and gives us an unprecedented opportunity to offer Skype's voice and video calling products to more than 750 million active users on Facebook.

Together, we've collaborated to create a great user experience -- with Skype providing an optimized version of its software and Facebook embedding the Skype calling experience deeply into their site, allowing Facebook users to enjoy the many benefits of video calling.

To get started connecting face to face using Facebook video calling, powered by Skype, it's quick and easy. Just ensure your Facebook Chat status is set to "online" and you are ready to go! You can initiate a Facebook video call right from the Chat box or you can click on your friend's Profile and if they are online, a "Call" button will appear at the top right of their Profile page. If your friend does not answer, you can leave them a video message. Your recorded video message will be waiting in your friend's Inbox the next time they check their Messages.

We hope you enjoy this latest product development from Facebook and Skype. And while you are on Facebook, why not head on over to Skype's Facebook page to learn more, share comments, and don't forget to 'Like' us too.

Skype Gets More Social with Deeper Facebook Integration

We are excited to announce the new Skype 5.5 Beta version for Windows, which enhances the user experience and features new updates to Skype based on user feedback. Skype is also continuing to bring people together whenever they are apart by introducing an easier way to connect with family and friends on Facebook. You can now instant message your Facebook friends directly from Skype, helping you stay connected with the people that matter the most to you. Simply use the new Facebook contacts tab within Skype to see when a Facebook friend you want to chat with is online and then start an IM conversation right from within.

The new Skype for Windows 5.5 Beta includes the following features:

• Facebook Instant Messaging - chat with your Facebook friends directly from Skype.


• Facebook Contacts Tab - a new tab within Skype dedicated to your Facebook contacts list.


• 'Like' and even comment on a Facebook status - You can also use the Facebook News Feed within Skype to easily "like" a friend's status or comment on it without logging into Facebook.


• New Call Control Toolbar - featuring redesigned graphic icons.


• Improvements to the saving of a phone number in the "Call Phones" section.


• Visual improvements to placing a call on hold.

Download Skype 5.5, the new Windows Beta and start chatting with your Facebook friends. Tell us what you think using the Skype > Provide Skype Feedback menu item and stay tuned as we will soon roll out the final version.

New improved Facebook view in Skype for Windows

We’ve just rolled out an update to the Facebook tab in Skype for Windows, which introduces a brand new look.

The Facebook tab brings your news feed in to Skype, and lets you

• see, comment on and Like your friends’ posts
• see your friends’ check-ins to Facebook Places
• call your friends on their mobile or landline directly from the news feed – if they’re also using the Facebook tab, you’ll be able to make a free Skype-to-Skype voice or video call

The new interface is faster than before, and lets you see more content in the same amount of screen space.

If you don’t see the Facebook tab in Skype, make sure you’ve downloaded the latest version of Skype, which includes Facebook as well as group video calling and more.