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Skype Makes Group Video Calling Free for Mac, PC, and Xbox One Users

I reckon FaceTime group call is happening this year on iOS 8 😛

I love FaceTime. Easy to use and simple. I also love to use FaceTime Audio to contact people overseas 🙂
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
It probably helps sell Windows Phones, and Xboxs, or at least that's the hope. If I'm between the Xbox One and PS4, this might push me to the One. (Although I have no idea why anyone would ever buy the One. Personally, I'm a Nintendo person and wouldn't ever buy a console that lacked Nintendo titles, but going by the available specs, games, and prices, there's no competition: PS4 beats Xbox One in every way imaginable).
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This is just one of those +1 things that makes things better for those who want to use/try Skype. It definitely can't hurt Microsoft's public perception.

Off topic: I think I may be the only human on the planet who never liked Nintendo.😱 My kids absolutely love Nintendo. I have always been a PS and XBox fan (specifically re; modern consoles). I own PS1, 2, 3, and XBox, XBox 360. Once we're well past the initial product run and more titles are available, I'm picking up the XBone. The online community is just better than the PS Community. My PS3 was for the exclusives and the extra Blu Ray. For me it's 50% PC, 35% XBox, and 15% PS. The specs of the latest consoles are close enough to where they are negligible. Sort of like the spec bump on the MBA.
 
Well, it's obvious that Skype is a good fit for Microsoft.... the user interface and steps involved in adding people to a call is atrocious and illogical. Sad, in 2014.

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Michael Goff said:
It'd be great if FaceTime was actually useful to most people.
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FaceTime has better video and audio quality in my experience, and it's connection handling is more graceful. But it doesn't yet have group calling and doesn't have a floating window on Macs, which is annoying when using other applications. Skype does the job well enough, but it's not as good. ooVoo has group calling, but the user interface is horrible, and the video and audio quality is a couple of notches underneath Skype.

Each has pros and cons. Pick the one that works best for you.
 
This is a step in the right direction for Microsoft. I hope Apple follows suit and offers group FaceTime soon.

Google Hangouts is a very good alternative in the interim.
 
Michael Goff said:
So you only video chat with one person at a time, and only if they have an Apple device?
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Yes! Absolutely, everyone who wants to video chat with me needs to have an iphone, and thats pretty much it, otherwise they can call me 😉 I really dont mind going by apple's rhythm, whenever they r ready to offer group video chat ill be fine with it. But if somebody needs this feature, sure, there's always skype for it.

😎
 
Michael Goff said:
So you only video chat with one person at a time, and only if they have an Apple device?
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HaHa good comeback. 🙂

That is the major fallback. I'm not going to cease all communication with my best friend unless she communicates with me only through her 3 year old iPod touch. Skype, though slow at times, is much more capable.
 
coolfactor said:
Well, it's obvious that Skype is a good fit for Microsoft.... the user interface and steps involved in adding people to a call is atrocious and illogical. Sad, in 2014.

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FaceTime has better video and audio quality in my experience, and it's connection handling is more graceful. But it doesn't yet have group calling and doesn't have a floating window on Macs, which is annoying when using other applications. Skype does the job well enough, but it's not as good. ooVoo has group calling, but the user interface is horrible, and the video and audio quality is a couple of notches underneath Skype.

Each has pros and cons. Pick the one that works best for you.
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Well, yes, it has tremendous upsides. The downside is that a majority of the people in the world have no real way of using it.

Traverse said:
HaHa good comeback. 🙂

That is the major fallback. I'm not going to cease all communication with my best friend unless she communicates with me only through her 3 year old iPod touch. Skype, though slow at times, is much more capable.
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Pretty much.
 
keterboy said:
Totally happy with facetime. I switched to facetime after microsoft bought skype.
🙄 :apple:
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Still denying that Apple was saved by Microsoft's money back in the '90s? 😎

I have never had so many problems with a chat app than with Facetime, and it's not just me. Constant failed connections or unable to because of signal strength, the outcome is almost always the same "Just go on Skype". Skype works EVEN IF your signal quality is low. Facetime has too many limitations.

We were doing it long before Facetime existed anyway.
 
Vinamra said:
The problem is, FaceTime still doesn't allow group video calling. Moreover, unlike Skype, FaceTime is not available across various platforms.

However, I was never satisfied with the call quality on Skype. Google Hangouts FTW!
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I use FaceTime whenever I can. My biggest disappointment with it, is the fact that the promised open industry standard never materialized. Ostensibly due to fall-out from Apple's VirtnetX patent loss.
 
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A cool guy said:
You get premium free if you have an Xbox One.
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I always felt it was a great move leading up to the XB1's launch.

I never understood the hate from the haters, saying "But I can Skype from my x/y/z device, so XB1 having it is no bonus".

My answer was that you couldn't do it from the comfort of your living room sofa (where most XB1s would be situated) and in HD on a 40+ inch screen.

For me it's been great. I use Skype on my XB1 in our living room to chat with friends and family in the UK, Canada, Spain, Australia and the US, all with a nice simple GUI, in HD and on a 95" screen (we have a projector, rather than an actual TV).
 
BornAgainMac said:
This is good news. This makes up for the lost iChat group video that FaceTime replaced. Looks like Apple will never add that feature back.
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Messages, the OS X app that replaced iChat, still has multiparty video chat. It still has support for AIM and Jabber. It simply adds in iMessage support too. And FaceTime exists as a separate application on Mac OS X.

What you're probably talking about is the "iChat Theater" function of iChat/Messages that was removed in Mavericks. This feature allowed you to videochat with someone else while presenting video or graphics or even a Keynote presentation.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5599
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6240
https://tidbits.com/article/9468

But Skype's functionality doesn't, as has never, included that.
 
macs4nw said:
I use FaceTime whenever I can. My biggest disappointment with it, is the fact that the promised open industry standard never materialized. Ostensibly due to fall-out from Apple's VirtnetX patent loss.
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Yes, FaceTime is a great app if its Apple to Apple and of course, one-to-one.
 
Pigumon said:
Still denying that Apple was saved by Microsoft's money back in the '90s? 😎

I have never had so many problems with a chat app than with Facetime, and it's not just me. Constant failed connections or unable to because of signal strength, the outcome is almost always the same "Just go on Skype". Skype works EVEN IF your signal quality is low. Facetime has too many limitations.

We were doing it long before Facetime existed anyway.
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Dude whatever u just stated is known to everyone, its not a secret facetime has issues, even tho i barely have any, i do hear of people having them. On the other hand i believe in the company's values, and thats why i support all their features and i try to keep everything under one roof for the sake of simplicity. Your 90' comment is just really sad man 😉
 
The wife tried Skype group video calling last night between two Macs and a PC. Black screens on them all. They went back to ooVoo.
 
So, can I use FaceTime to call landlines?

So, can I use FaceTime to call other platforms?

I'll stick with Skype - been using it worldwide, for years, without a glitch.

FaceTime always reminds me of two kids, with soup cans, linked together by a piece of string.
 
RedOrchestra said:
So, can I use FaceTime to call landlines?

So, can I use FaceTime to call other platforms?

I'll stick with Skype - been using it worldwide, for years, without a glitch.

FaceTime always reminds me of two kids, with soup cans, linked together by a piece of string.
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Except it often works better than all of those, even if at the cost of being limited as to who can be reached with that. So the underlying thing is personal need: for some one thing works for another another, there's no right or wrong really, one way or another.
 
RedOrchestra said:
even at the cost of being limited ??????????
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Correct, as I went on to say that it depend on personal needs, if what you need is limited to other Apple users then all is good for you with respect to using FaceTime and not needing something else that might even be of worse quality perhaps, if not, then you likely need something else.
 
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