Skype, aMicrosoft-owned Voice over IP (VoIP) provider, on Thursday added another missing feature to itsiPhoneclient after amajor visual overhaul ofthe app in June removed a few popular capabilities.
Specifically, the new Skype 5.4 enables group audio calling with up to four participants. you’re able to also add or remove people to an existing call and disabled users should appreciate a few improvements to the app’s accessibility.
The refreshed application is nowavailable in the App Store for free.
You can initiate a group audio call from a chat, an existing audio call or a video call. To get started, just tap a new call button in the bottom navigation bar to start your call.
“We support up to four people on a group audio call in this first release, but you’re able to expect to hear further news on this in the near future,” notes the firm.
Once in the group call, you can tap the navigation bar to see the active participants on the call (the number of participants is shown in the top bar), check out who’s in the group but not on the call and of course take anyone off the call without ending the call in progress.
To turn a voice or video call into a group audio call, hit the newAdd participantbutton mid-call, as shown below.
For those wondering about group video calling, this feature supports up to nine participants and is available free to all users on the Mac, Windows and Xbox One platforms (used to be a paid Premium feature).
Free group video calling is “coming soon” to Skype apps for Windows Metro, Windows Phone, Android and iOS platforms,according to The Next Web in April.
Skype 5.4 changelog:
Previous updates have brought back other missing features, includingvoice messaging and contact profiles.
Skype’s FAQlists currently unsupported features on iOS like synchronizing with iOS Contacts, showing favorite contacts and screen sharing (you can’t share your screen with your contacts, but they can share their screen with you during a one-to-one video call).
Note that the desktop Skypeapplication is no longer supportedon Macs running OS X 10.5.8 and below.
