14 DAY TRIAL // While the entire world has migrated to apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to work from home during these difficult times, Skype continues to be a rather popular choice for all those who just want to stay in touch with friends without the need for any other productivity features.
So yes, Microsoft has no reason to kill off Skype, as some people predicted, but what’s more, the company even keeps improving it with additional features released on a regular basis.
More recently, Microsoft has shipped Skype 8.62, and this new update brings several improvements to the desktop client.
First and foremost, this new update includes additional goodies for those who want to set up a custom background during a video call.
As we learned already, sometimes the hard way, having a custom background during a video call is a must, especially because, you know, we’re staying home together with kids and the rest of the family. So to prevent accidents, a custom background actually comes in handy, so Skype previously received support for photos that can be uploaded by users themselves.
In other words, the app allowed you to set up a picture that you could then enable as a background during a video call. And part of this new update is an improvement for this feature, as you can now choose for a series of predefined backgrounds for video calls.
“When the focus belongs on you and not your room, you can blur or customize your background during a video call in Skype. The option to choose a background effect or blur your background is not available in Skype for Android,” Microsoft explains. “It's recommended to use images in landscape orientation and the custom image needs to be saved locally on your desktop.”
Skype 8.62 also introduces support for up to 12 different people that can participate in a video call and then be displayed in a new grid view. This means Skype more or less takes on Zoom with this update, as it makes it easier to get in touch with groups of people and chat easier from the desktop.
Previously, Skype only supported up to 9 people in a call with a 3x3 grid view, so beginning with this update, the limit is increased to 12 participants.
And just as expected, the desktop client is also getting additional bug fixes and performance under the hood, as explained by Microsoft.
“We've improved message sync when some conversations weren't updating, as well as made a few general improvements,” the company says.
As far as the mobile clients are concerned, an increase in the number of people that can be displayed during a video call at the same time is also rolled out. If you’re using an Android smartphone, like the Samsung Galaxy S20, to call groups of contacts, you can now see up to 8 different people at the same time on the screen. On the other hand, if you’re using an Android tablet for the whole thing, the limit is now 9 people enabled at the same time on the display.
Obviously, extra refinements and bug fixes are available for mobile too.
What you need to know is that all these new features are rolling out to devices in stages, so it could take a while until they become available on your desktop computer. Microsoft recommends waiting for a few more days to get them, as the phased rollout is expected to advance rather fast, both on the desktop and on mobile devices where the new Skype is available.