I don’t think any Internet and computer savvy person is not aware of Skype. And this review is not to tell you what it is and what its purpose is, however to give some insights of what’s so good about it and what are some of its problems.
What is it all about?: In simple terms and in short - Skype is a free software for chats which is primarily used for text communication however also supports voice calls, video chats, screen sharing etc.
Recently this was purchased by Microsoft (and since then we have started seeing some bugs in its new releases):)
The software is highly used in most IT companies, for both official and unofficial communication. It is becoming a backbone of these office’s day to day business. It has cut down the cost of companies as they don’t have to spend on international telephone calls, video conferences, data share, and not having to purchase other Software to share screens and so on.
Irritating bits: Skype however keeps notifying you of it’s recent versions asking you to upgrade. Like, the most recent version 7.17, which, after I installed started behaving weird. I started seeing my responses to other person in a jumbled manner, also the notifications were not clearing even when I have read the messages - this was very irritating as the notifications were always showing in the right hand side task bar tray and I always felt there is a new message.
After having tried different solutions discussed in the community group, I decided to un-install this version and re-install the older version. Everything was normal for some time and I faced the same issue in few hours, I again checked the version and it was back to 7.17. I quickly realized it must have checked the’auto update’option on. I went to Tools-Options-Advanced Settings-Automatic Updates and checked, yes it was. So, I un-installed and re-installed the older version and went back to this option and un-checked this option, everything then was ok!
One another irritating thing is it show advertisements in the window, however there is a way by which you can disable the same. I had to google to get rid of this. You need to remove the ad related tag in the xml file of the application.
However, because of these minor aspects, I cannot deny the credits to this software for its other super features.
One of its best feature is calling phones [paid service] and it really helps when you are out of India. I believe its one of the cheapest and the best modes of communication.
I would not go through all of its features here, however the best ones are: Photo sharing, Video calling, Group conversations, Screen sharing.
My day at office does not begin without logging into Skype - such is it part of my life!:)