We love to say that distance is no match for Skype – so whether your loved ones are across the globe or across the street, you can always call and say hello to see the smiling faces that are important to you – in crystal clear, high definition video. We want to make sure that every video call our users make is as great as possible. Simple enough, right?
To make our goals a reality, we are investing in all sorts of improvements that will help improve video and audio calls in almost any situation – all available in the latest versions of Skype. But what exactly are those improvements? We went to our engineering team to find out.
“The main advantage we have over our competition is the sheer number of call minutes we process each day, and that helps us ensure quality calls,” says Karlheinz Wurm, Partner Product Manager for Skype Real-time communications – up to
2 billion minutes per day.
“We know more about the situations our users find themselves in, and based on that information, we can optimize our software for any of those situations. For example, in the US, we know what a Skype call between two people with the same internet provider is like, or we can analyze this call between you in the US and me in Germany, and we can therefore use the data on bandwidth or the strength of the wireless link to optimize Skype, ensuring users are getting the absolute best audio and video. Based on this information, we’re updating and changing algorithms as we speak, and in the coming months you’ll see significant improvements in call quality – improvements that will be ongoing.”
For example, we’ve been tweaking and optimizing our algorithms to help tailor high definition video calling to achieve better video quality across all platforms. So that means in the latest version of Skype on desktop, you can call your friends and family in crystal clear quality. Imagine seeing your friend’s face with the same level of clarity that’s usually only available in movies.
We’ve been hard at work trying to make sure that you have the best quality call possible. Over the past nine months we’ve seen significant increases in the amount of HD calls sent by our users. We’re proud to say that we’ve had an increase of more than 900% in 720p+ calls on Windows Modern and an increase of over 500% on our Windows desktop client. And that’s a huge step forward in high definition video calling if you ask us.
Now, with the latest version of Skype, you can catch up with friends in high definition on our desktop clients – so you don’t have to just talk, but you can actually game, play, watch, talk and be together regardless of the distance.
Don’t forget that 1080p HD video is available on Skype for Windows Desktop, Windows Modern, and Xbox One. Want to try calling your friends in high definition video?
Upgrade to the latest version of Skype here.
