Skype For Mac Book Pro

[Dhara Lyford]

Skypeskaɪp/) is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debit-based calls to landline and mobile telephones (over traditional telephone networks), and other features. It is available on various desktop, mobile, and video game console platforms.

Skype was created by Niklas Zennstrm, Janus Friis, and four Estonian developers, and first released in August 2003. In September 2005, eBay acquired it for $2.6 billion.[5] In September 2009,[6] Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay, valuing the business at $2.92 billion. In May 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion and used it to replace their Windows Live Messenger. As of 2011, most of the development team and 44% of all the division's employees were in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia.[7][8][9]

The name for the software is derived from "Sky peer-to-peer", which was then abbreviated to "Skyper". However, some of the domain names associated with "Skyper" were already taken.[13] Dropping the final "r" left the current title "Skype", for which domain names were available.[14]

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrm, from Sweden, and Janus Friis, from Denmark.[15] The software was created by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn, and Toivo Annus.[16] Friis and Annus are credited with the idea of reducing the cost of voice calls by using a P2P protocol like that of Kazaa.[17] An early alpha version was created and tested in spring 2003, and the first public beta version was released on 29 August 2003.[18][17]

In June 2005, Skype entered an agreement with Polish web portal Onet.pl for an integrated offering on the Polish market.[19] On 12 September 2005, eBay Inc. agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA for approximately US$2.5 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration.[20] On 1 September 2009, eBay announced it was selling 65% of Skype to Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for US$1.9 billion, valuing Skype at US$2.75 billion.[21] On 14 July 2011, Skype partnered with Comcast to bring its video chat service to Comcast subscribers via HDTV sets.[22]

On 10 May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications, S. r.l for US$8.5 billion.[26] It was incorporated as a division of Microsoft, which acquired all its technologies with the purchase. The acquisition was completed on 13 October 2011.[26][27] Microsoft began integrating the Skype service with its own products. Along with taking over the development of existing Skype desktop and mobile apps, it developed a dedicated client app for its then-newly released, touch-focused Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems, which were made available from Windows Store when the then-new OS launched on 26 October 2012. The following year, it became the default messaging app for Windows 8.1, replacing the Windows 8 Messaging app at the time, and was pre-installed on every device that came with or upgraded to 8.1.[28]

In a month-long transition from 8 to 30 April 2013, Microsoft discontinued two[see talk] of its own products in favor of Skype, including its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service, although Messenger continued to be available in mainland China until October 2014.[29][30]

On 11 November 2014, Microsoft announced that in 2015, its Lync product would be replaced by Skype for Business, combining the features of Lync and the consumer Skype software. Organizations that used it could switch their users between the default Skype for Business interface and the Lync interface.[31]

In July 2016, Skype introduced an early Alpha version of a new Skype for Linux client, built with WebRTC technology, after several petitions asked Microsoft to continue development for Linux.[36][37] In September of that year, Skype updated their iOS app with new features, including an option to call contacts on Skype through Siri voice commands.[38] In October of that year, Microsoft launched Skype for Business for Mac.[39]

In February 2017, Microsoft announced plans to discontinue its Skype Wi-Fi service globally. The application was delisted, and the service itself became non-functional from 31 March 2017.[40][41] On 5 June 2017, Microsoft announced its plans to revamp Skype with similar features to Snapchat, allowing users to share temporary copies of their photos and video files.[42] In late June 2017, Microsoft rolled out their latest update for iOS, incorporating a revamped design and new third-party integrations, with platforms including Gfycat, YouTube, and UpWorthy.[43] It was not well-received, with numerous negative reviews and complaints that the new client broke existing functionality.[44] Skype later removed this "makeover". In December 2017, Microsoft added "Skype Interviews", a shared code editing system for those wishing to hold job interviews for programming roles.[45][46]

Microsoft eventually moved the service from a peer-to-peer to a central server based system, and with it adjusted the user interfaces of apps to make text-based messaging more prominent than voice calling. Skype for Windows,[47] iOS,[48] Android,[49] Mac[50] and Linux[51] all received significant visual overhauls at this time.

The Online Number, a.k.a. SkypeIn, service allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers dialed by conventional phone subscribers to a local Skype phone number; local numbers are available for Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[53][54] A Skype user can have local numbers in any of these countries, with calls to the number charged at the same rate as calls to fixed lines in the country.

Skype does not provide the ability to call emergency numbers, such as 112 in Europe, 911 in North America, 999 in the UK or 100 in India and Nepal.[57] However, as of December 2012, there is limited support for emergency calls in the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, and Finland.[58] The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that, for the purposes of section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, Skype is not an "interconnected VoIP provider".[59] As a result, the U.S. National Emergency Number Association recommends that all VoIP users have an analog line available as a backup.[60]

At the end of 2010, there were over 660 million worldwide users, with over 300 million estimated active each month as of August 2015.[80] At one point in February 2012, there were 34 million users concurrently online on Skype.[81]

In January 2011, after the release of video calling on the Skype client for iPhone, Skype reached a record 27 million simultaneous online users.[82] This record was broken with 29 million simultaneous online users on 21 February 2011[83] and again on 28 March 2011 with 30 million online users.[84] On 25 February 2012, Skype announced that it has over 32 million users for the first time ever.[85] By 5 March 2012, it had 36 million simultaneous online users,[86] and less than a year later, on 21 January 2013, Skype had more than 50 million concurrent users online.[87]In June 2012, Skype had surpassed 70 million downloads on Android.[88]

At end March 2020 there was a 70% increase in the number of daily users from the previous month, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[92] However, Skype also lost a large part of its market share to Zoom.[93]

Multiple different versions of Skype have been released for Windows since its conception. The original line of Skype applications continued from versions 1.0 through 4.0. It has offered a desktop-only program since 2003. Later, a mobile version was created for Windows Phones.

In 2012, Skype introduced a new version for Windows 8 similar to the Windows Phone version.[94] On 7 July 2015, Skype modified the application to direct Windows users to download the desktop version, but it was set to continue working on Windows RT until October 2016.[95] In November 2015, Skype introduced three new applications, called Messaging, Skype Video, and Phone, intended to provide an integrated Skype experience on Windows 10.[96][97] On 24 March 2016, Skype announced that the integrated applications did not satisfy most users' needs and announced that they and the desktop client would eventually be replaced with a new UWP application,[98] which was released as a preview version for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update and dubbed as the stable version with the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update.

The latest version of Skype for Windows is Skype 11, which is based on the Universal Windows Platform and runs on various Windows 10-related systems, including Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows phones, and Microsoft Hololens. Microsoft still offers the older Skype 8, which is Win32-based and runs on all systems from Windows XP (which is otherwise unsupported by Microsoft) to the most recent release of Windows 10.[99]

Skype was previously available on Java mobiles,[101] Nokia X, Symbian, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 devices. In May 2009, a Version 3.0 was available on Windows Mobile 5 to 6.1, and in September 2015, a Version 2.29[102] was available on Windows Phone 8.1; in 2016, Microsoft announced that this would stop working in early 2017 once Skype's transition from peer-to-peer to client-server was complete.[103]

Third-party developers, such as Truphone, Nimbuzz, and Fring, previously allowed Skype to run in parallel with several other competing VoIP/IM networks (Truphone and Nimbuzz provide TruphoneOut and NimbuzzOut as a competing paid service) in any Symbian or Java environment. Nimbuzz made Skype available to BlackBerry users, and Fring provided mobile video calling over Skype as well as support for the Android platform. Skype disabled access to Skype by Fring users in July 2010.[109] Nimbuzz discontinued support of Skype on request in October 2010.[110]

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