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Once these limits have been reached, the video will
switch off and the call will convert to an audio call.”
See the above URL for the other, quite reasonable,
limits.
Skype’s interface varies with its version and your
hardware and software; as a result, what you see
may differ somewhat from the screenshots here.
Figure 1 shows Skype’s opening screen, after the
user has selected the Chats icon toward the upper
left, and it shows one of Skype’s puzzles for new
users. My name appears at the upper left, but you
must contact me by my Skype name, which is
“skype,alias” and appears towards the bottom right
of the welcome screen in the sentence, “You are
signed in as skype.alias.” (If you are not on the
opening screen, find your Skype name by selecting
the three dots to the right of your name at the top of
the left panel, and then “Settings” followed by
“Accounts & Profile.) Skype names are unique, but
a search on a person’s given name will likely pro-
duce dozens of hits.
Figure 1. Skype Opening Screen.
To communicate with someone you must first add
their name to your contact list. Select “Contacts” in
the menu bar toward the upper left, then select the
+ button; enter their Skype name, and select the
associated Add button. This will work only if they
have enabled “Appear in search results.” (Go to
Settings as above, then “Contacts” and “Privacy” to
make this choice.) Many Skype names have the
form “live:.cd.6f73e115260c0804”, and sometimes
searches using the full name fail, but succeed if you
delete the “live:.cd.” prefix.
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Skype is different in that the moderator places a call
to the participants, while other services require that
the participants call into a conference. The set-up
procedure varies with the version, and in Linux, it’s
done by setting up a group chat. Select “Chats” in
the menu bar toward the upper left and the “+ Chat”
button, and finally “New Group Chat.” The result is in
Figure 2. Select either the round button at top right,
or “Select More People” toward the bottom, and add
participants from your contact list. Selecting the
camera icon at the upper right will start a video con-
ference, and selecting the handset icon a voice con-
ference. As the call begins, you will have an oppor-
tunity to ring the participants to alert them, which is
probably a good idea.
Figure 2. Define a Group Chat.
Although Skype conferences can be as large as 50,
at most 10 of these can be transmitting video. This
isn’t as restrictive as it may sound, as the audio par-
ticipants still see the video. The screen is tiled, with
a pane dedicated to each active video participant.
As a result, each added participant reduces the size
of all the others. Participants can disable their micro-
phones to reduce the background noise and can al-
so disable their cameras, using icons toward the bot-
toms of their screens, but these appear only when
the cursor is active and on the Skype window. When
disabled, a diagonal line appears on the associated
icon. There is also a red handset icon here to termi-
nate the call.
Skype’s interface varies with its version and your
hardware and software, which may make it difficult
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