Skype Garage

Easily host big conference calls in Skype

Ever had trouble starting up a big conference call?

We have developed an experimental feature to allow you to host big group conference calls in an easier way, with no need to rely on people picking up the call when you start.

All you have to do is distribute one easy link to all participants - for participants, it's just one click to join the call.

By default, an audio conference call will be created, but if any of the participants has a Premium subscription for Group Video Calls then you can easily turn on video at any point in the call.

Hosting a conference call with automatic answering

To start the call, type the following in the group you want to invite to the call:

/golive TOKEN

where TOKEN is a name for the call, e.g. weekly_team_meeting

and press Enter.

This will enable the hosting Skype to automatically answer calls from people who call in using the special link.

skype:echo123?call&token=TOKEN

Send this link to the group (or to anyone else you want to join in the call).

You may also distribute the call link without executing the golive command. If you do this, you'll need to answer the first incoming call for the conference - all the additional persons will be added automatically.

Participating in a conference

All you have to do is click on the link distributed by the call host. It's as simple as that.

Supported Skype versions

Skype 5.0 for Windows and Skype 5.0 for Mac support both creating and participating in conference calls via these links.

In addition you are able to join conference calls from Skype 4.2 for Windows and Skype 2.8 for Mac. This feature is currently not supported on Skype mobile apps or on Skype for Linux.

Enjoy and let us know what you think about this feature.

The importance of updating

At Skype, we regularly release updates to our software, and with every update, we introduce new features, improve existing ones and fix bugs.

Keeping Skype up to date is the only way you can take advantage of these improvements, and is vital to making sure that Skype remains safe and secure.

As a result, we use a variety of methods to help make sure you’re aware of the latest versions when they appear. You can subscribe to our blogs, follow us on Twitter or head to our Facebook Page. We also display reminders inside Skype, in the App Store on iOS, and in the Android Market to let you know that there’s an update ready. On Windows, we now make it easy to stay up to date by downloading new versions in the background while you work.

An important note: From time to time, we may discontinue older versions of Skype – this helps us keep things safe and secure, helps us tune our customer support efforts to focus on the latest versions, and, most importantly, makes sure you’re benefiting from all the latest goodies, including features like group video calling which require everyone to be using the latest version of Skype. In these situations, you’ll have to update in order to continue to use Skype, plain and simple.

You can always download the latest version of Skype from our website, or from skype.com/m on your mobile.