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Skype - the video chat for people who aren't Apple slaves
July 14, 2021

Skype - the video chat for people who aren't Apple slaves

Daniel Epstein | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Skype

Skype is used in two main ways with my production company. First of all, it's a useful way to video chat for people who don't own Apple products (otherwise we would use Facetime) and who don't want to bother with meeting links (otherwise we would use Zoom). The second use is that we record podcasts and Skype not only allows us to all dial-in together but serves as a recorder that later we can extract the file to post for our audience.
  • Allowing you to call someone across several devices, including phones, tablets, and desktop computers
  • Allows you to record your sessions to be used for record keeping or Podcast creation
  • Allows you to have multiple people dial in to the same call easily and smoothly
  • Skype's overall UI is a little confusing, especially the phone app
  • It's unclear how to steer a Skype call, which is to say if I call someone and they have Skype on multiple devices, do they all ring or just the one related to the method I used to call (phone #, email, etc.)
  • Skype tries to be not just a communication device but also somewhat a social media platform, which it doesn't need to be.
  • Skype is free and the ability to have multiple people dial in and participate in a recorded call that can then be made into a podcast is fantastic
  • The cross-platform ability of Skype allows us to include anyone, regardless of the hardware they possess
  • The video quality and audio quality are very good, and even using mobile phones the connection is solid.
  • Zoom
I'm not a fan of Zoom. It tries to steer you towards downloading an app even though you can simply log into a meeting via your browser (though it hides the latter functionality as hard as it can). I was an invitee to a reoccurring Zoom meeting and lost the invite link after a few months. I had no way of joining the meeting and had to ask for the link again. With Skype, it tracks your calls and you can redial from your history, which is a much better system.

Do you think Skype delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Skype's feature set?

Yes

Did Skype live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Skype go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Skype again?

Yes

Facetime is only useful if everyone has Apple products. For those of us with Android phones, Skype is the obvious option for video chat, easy VOIP phone calls, and recording software. Zoom was used during the pandemic of 2020 but the problem with that is that if you have a reoccurring meeting but lose the Zoom link, you have to ask for it again. With Skype, you can simply go to your recent calls and repeat the call again.

Skype Feature Ratings

9.3
High quality audio
9
High quality video
10
Low bandwidth requirements
9
Mobile support
9
7.0
Desktop sharing
7
Whiteboards
7
9.0
Calendar integration
8
Meeting initiation
10
Integrates with social media
8
Record meetings / events
10
Slideshows
9
Online Events Collaboration ()
Not Rated
Online Events Security ()
Not Rated
VoIP system collaboration ()
Not Rated
Web and Video Conferencing ()
Not Rated

Using Skype

Skype is not as good as Facetime in terms of ease to glance at it and figure out how it works. I think that's a result of Skype trying to be too many things at once. A lot of the menu and UI could be streamlined, and I would jettison some of the additional functions that have been tacked on over the years to simplify. That being said, while some options are slightly hard to find, they all work flawlessly once found.
ProsCons
Like to use
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Feel confident using
Unnecessarily complex
Slow to learn
Lots to learn
  • Calling someone you've talked to before
  • Finding people through your contacts
  • switching between video chat and just telephonic, and muting/unmuting
  • Figuring out how to adjust settings seems less intuitive than it should be
  • There are options that cost money, and options that are free, and the separation is not as well defined as I would like. Probably intentional to trick you into paying more
  • The layout of the top menu has my account in the middle, with notifications on the left. I would rather my account be on the left, like most other programs I use
Yes - The mobile interface works seamlessly with the desktop interface. if you are being called, both will ring and you can chose which device you answer. The menus are easy to navigate though I would do some rearraigning of their locations to align them with other program menus on the market.