Skype Looks To Claw Back Lost Ground
Skype has finally introduced group video calls for mobiles and tablets.
Whether it can claw back this territory from rival providers, though, remains to be seen.
The popular voice calls provider has been providing free group video chat over the internet from PCs and Macs for a couple of years now, but that has been no good for users when they are out and about and reliant on mobile devices.
Other free alternatives, such as Google Hangouts and Oovoo, have filled the void so Skype has much catching up to do.
Perhaps that is why Skype has also increased the number of people who can be included in a group call to 25.
This compares with maximums of 10 in Hangouts and 12 for Oovoo.
Mind you, they may not be giving much away there. It is generally understood that video performance degrades the more callers join a conversation and that beyond about half-a-dozen participants the bandwidth of domestic and public wifi connections can run out of steam.
Also, according to reports, Skype is not immune to the occasional call drop out, loss of audio and frozen video complaints that see to afflict the reputations all group video products.
Even the professional business grade online video conferencing and webinar solutions, where AnyMeeting and GoToWebinar appear to lead the beauty parade, seem to suffer from these same issues.
Nevertheless, the increasing popularity of group video calling remains undented, as business users save on travel costs and leisure time aficionados catch up with friends and family.
It’s good to talk and, given a wifi connection, folk have a growing preference for face to face.
