Microsoft has released version 8. 67 of the instant messenger service Skype, which, like Microsoft Teams, provides a Together Mode and a large gallery. With Skype video conferences, all streams of the participants can now be seen at the same time, which is particularly advantageous for virtual family Christmas parties in times of pandemic. There are also new backgrounds and bug fixes.

In Together Mode, Skype displays the participants in a video conference in a virtual environment – this is by default an auditorium. An AI cuts the portraits from the individual streams and then places them together in a lecture hall. At least five participants must take part in a video conference. Microsoft had already introduced this function for its business messenger teams in July. In addition, participant streams can be displayed in a large gallery, i.e. in a grid view. According to Microsoft, both should not only work under Windows, Mac and Linux, but also in the web application, according to the Skype release notes.

Another new feature of the version for desktops is that in the future people can be added to ongoing Skype video calls using both their telephone number and Skype. In addition, there are new background images so that you can create a prettier environment during video calls. Microsoft has expanded the background categories for this purpose.

Bug fixes There are also various bug fixes: The Skype application should no longer be used on Macs automatically go to sleep mode. Freezing videos and playback problems should also be fixed with the new version. JavaScript errors that occurred when using Skype on Windows Servers should no longer appear.

Version 8. 67 will be gradually made available via the update function of Skype.

(olb)