Skype tries to make using the video calling software as easy as possible and reminding people that using the app is not complicated. Company tweeted a reminder today that users can now start a video meeting and invite people without using the app or even having an account; the process is done entirely on the web. (People can start a conversation from here.) Skype likely hopes this feature will give it an edge over some of its competitors, namely Zoom, which has dominated the video call since the pandemic began. Skype has been largely omitted from most video call listings.
Zoom requires a meeting host to have an account, as well as the app to start a conversation, although attendees don’t need that either. Still, Skype is catching up on Zoom by making the video conference feature clearer in the app, and mitigating the process of wanting to start a call to make it happen with this feature. My colleague Tom Warren wrote about how Skype gave up to Zoom this moment, which is worth reading. But the company is not giving up yet and is likely hoping to transfer people to Skype, especially amid Zoom’s latest security and privacy concerns.
Correction 4/3, 4:42 PM ET: This article initially stated that this was a new feature; that was a mistake. We regret the mistake.