Skype Experience

The experience of using Skype is unique. Because Skype shows you which of your contacts are available and online at any moment, you are always loosely linked to the people in your personal community.

This sense of presenceof knowing who is available and willing to interactmakes communicating infinitely easier. You can "ping" someone with a Skype instant message (IM) to send a brief note, ask a question, or simply say hello. And because instant messaging is less formal and doesn't demand an immediate response, you can interact comfortably over an extended period of time without having to pick up the phone and risk interrupting. When you're ready to talk, you can make a voice call with a touch of a button.

Presence also alters the effects of time and distance. When people in your Skype Contacts List are online and available, you don't have to think of them as being in a particular time zone or locale. And because there is no cost to interact with other Skype users, it doesn't matter where your contacts physically are; they can be in your hometown or in another country thousands of miles away.

With Skype, you have a new opportunity to meet people from all over the world in a way that respects mutual privacy and keeps you in control of how you manage your contacts. You can choose to interact with someone new in chat before allowing them to call you, for example, or block unauthorized users from contacting you at all.

You can also switch from one mode to another as your communication needs shift. You can start in chat and switch to voice. You can talk with someone in the morning and then share IMs for updates throughout the day. You can also interact in different modes simultaneously to do things like send files while talking, drop screen shots directly into chat, or host a conference call while chatting (IMing) in the background with a colleague.

Skype offers a dramatically enhanced communication experience, but it is not foolproof or perfect. Skype will not work if you lose your Internet connection (or your electricity), and there currently is no support for emergency services such as 911 in the United States. You may also experience echoes on the line, jitters, warbling, and other call artifacts if your computer is old, your Internet connection is slow, or your computer is limited by a highly restrictive firewall.

Skype currently may not have all the features of a mature telephone system, but continue to watch for new features and enhancements, as Skype Technologies is upgrading the software and services continually.