Video calling in groups with Skype is now free

Skype announced Monday that group video calling, previously a paid feature, is now free for all Windows, Mac and Xbox One users. The Microsoft subsidiary also says that more platforms will follow.

Skype made this known via its weblog. By offering free video calling in groups, the paid functionality that was part of the premium service until Monday is no longer available. Users have been asking Skype for some time to offer this functionality for free.

With the change, the Microsoft subsidiary reportedly wants to compete better with, among others, Hangouts from Google, which has been offering video calling in groups for free for some time. The announcement on Monday follows shortly after Microsoft already integrated video calling with Skype into the Outlook.com mail service.

With Skype it is possible to have group conversations in which up to ten people can participate. For now, group video calling is available for free to users of Windows, Mac and Xbox One, but according to Skype, more platforms will follow. It is not yet known when that will happen.