Group Video Calling Arrives In Skype’s Mobile Apps

The new feature will allow as many as 25 participants in a single Skype video chat, with 1080p video quality, and access to both front and back cameras.

Microsoft today announced it has started rolling out group video calling on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets in Western Europe and North America and plans to make it fully available worldwide in March. Skype designed two new views for group video conferences: the first allows users to see one another in a grid, and it’s designed for calls with a handful of people.

When you’re on a group call using the app, you can always see your own feed in the lower right hand corner of the screen – much the same as Skype’s desktop app. If there are more than seven people on the call, it will automatically switch view and highlight each person as they speak, similar to Skype’s desktop version and Google Hangouts. Audio for the calls utilizes Microsoft’s SILK Super Wide Band audio codec from its cloud conferencing stack, and was worked on in partnership with Intel who helped to optimize the code for Azure running on Intel processors. But once you hit more than seven participants, the display re-arranges things to highlight the person speaking by default, with all the other participants lined up at the bottom of the screen. It expects to complete the roll out in these markets over the next week.

Before Skype was known for video, it was known for placing calls.

“We’ve built an experience optimized for mobile and tablet screens”. Since October, for computer users, Skype lets you send a chat link to someone through email or social media that lets them join your chat even if they don’t have Skype.

Microsoft is also extending its Skype chat invitation feature to iOS and Android.