Update fixes crashes on launch, notification tweaks, and more

Mar 26, 2014 15:12 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has announced the release of Skype 6.15 for Mac OS X, a highly-anticipated update for some users who are experiencing problems with the video chatting and IM client.

“Today we’ve released Skype for Mac, version 6.15. As with all our recent releases, we’ve focused on improving user experience and stability,” Nick Kocharhook and Tom Huang are proud to announce.

“Occasionally, some users experienced crashes on launch, and others on quit. Thanks to some valuable assistance from users in the Community Forums, we’ve been able to identify the cause of these crashes. This release contains fixes for both of them,” the duo says.

While some users won’t have to do anything extra aside from downloading and installing the new Skype, MacBook Pro users looking to do screen sharing will be required to install OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 to get a decent experience with Skype 6.15.

Microsoft doesn’t say sorry if that’s not on your agenda and offers it as an actual “fix” to widespread crashing reports.

According to the same post, “In the release of Skype for Mac version 6.14, we highlighted two known issues: animated emoticons using too much CPU, and some users experiencing crashes when screen sharing on MacBook Pros. In 6.15 we have fixed the animated emoticons issue, and MacBook Pros users should update to Mac OS X 10.9.2 to prevent crashes when screen sharing.”

If you set Skype to notify you of something and the feature doesn’t seem to work, don’t worry, the problem lies with a bug in the software. A bug that Microsoft has addressed, according to Nick Kocharhook and Tom Huang.

“Sometimes you don’t want to be notified of every message in a long-lived conversation, and that’s why Skype for Mac has allowed you to set notifications per-conversation for many years.”

“However, recently users on the Forums reported that these settings weren’t sticking. We’re happy to let you know this is no longer the case – this bug is fixed, and you can again use ‘Notification Settings…’ from the ‘Conversations’ menu to set notification keywords, etc.,” the duo adds.

As usual, customers are encouraged to provide their invaluable feedback in order to address any newly emerged issues. Interestingly, Skype 6.15 is one of the few releases that actually doesn’t come with a list of known issues.

Download Skype 6.15 for Mac OS X at the supplied link and remember to update to OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 if you’re looking to enjoy some screen sharing goodness in the future.