Skype is one of the most popular instant messaging tools in the world. With its help, you can stay connected to your friends and family, hold video conferences, send documents, share your location information, and even make calls from Skype to smartphones and landlines.
Over the years, Skype has been bringing a wide range of performance improvements and appearance changes. You can now choose between multiple interface themes, adjust the sound volume of your speakers directly from the program's Settings panel, export chat history, and so much more.
In addition, the connections are way more stable now and you have the ability to share diagnostics from a faulty chatting session directly from the program's interface. So, if you're dealing with connection problems, simply go to Applications Settings -> Diagnostic Tools, describe your issue, and you will receive the assistance you need in a short period of time.
The only thing that bothers me is that it takes a while to launch Skype on my Mac (macOS 10.12) and log in to my account. Still, it could be my Mac's fault.
All in all, I think Skype is still one of the best instant messaging tools available for Mac. It provides you with great services, is very intuitive, and comes without a price.
v5.1 [Mar 24, 2011]
- Sharing Instant Messages with friends on Messenger. You can now sign in with your Microsoft account (formerly Windows Live ID), and see presence as well as send and receive IM messages from your friends who are using Messenger, Xbox, Hotmail or Outlook.com.
- Improved Facebook integration. You can now sign in directly with your Facebook account, without needing to first create a Skype account.
- Different conversations can now be opened in separate windows by selecting this option in Preferences (General -> Open conversation in new window when I double-click in the sidebar).
- Link Microsoft and Facebook accounts to a Skype account. If you sign in with a Microsoft or Facebook account you will be offered the option to link your Skype account. If you choose the link option then Skype will display a combined list of friends. This is an area we are still working through so please let us know about your experience.
