2012-05-18

Tip of the day: free screen sharing with Skype!

When you are in a video call and you want to share a screen you get the following message: "You need Skype Premium to share screens", and … you can have a free 7 days trial or buy Skype Premium at once. But, the following phrase made me curious: “Sharing screens on a video call or a group call is available as part of Skype Premium”. Implicitly, this means that when you are in a normal one to one Skype to Skype voice call WITHOUT VIDEO you still have free screen sharing. I tried it, here is the result …
No more pop up screen inviting you to pay for Skype Premium, and while calling the other person you still can see HIS (or HER) video! But he or she can’t see you. Therefore, screen sharing is still free! But Skype doesn’t tell you this in the pop-up screen, of course, business is business!
I tested this with version 5.9.0.114 for Windows.

9 comments:

Nafcom said...

That was always clear as screen sharing is technically a video strean (directX). it's very sad they confuse people like that to gain questionable money :(

Jean Mercier said...

Thanks Jörg for commenting, we agree, and thanks Astrology for the "thank you"

Anonymous said...

Interesting Blog. Worth Reading it.
Rajesh Bothra



Thank

Anonymous said...

Hi Jean,
Just discovered your bolg and it is absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

I am looking some stats on % of skype users that connect skype with their facebook account, and I felt inspired to see if you know something about that. Any ideas?

Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Got my previous comment answer in case you are curious :)

Just compare skype total download user base with the MAU you can find here: http://www.appdata.com/apps/facebook/260273468396-skype

Hope you find this comment useful!
Cheers,

Jean Mercier said...

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks a lot for the FaceBook app stats, I didn't know this site!

Jean

Anonymous said...

have you ever heard about safety problems with Skype Video chat, hacked or recorded by strangers?

Jean Mercier said...

I never heard about hacking of this kind!

great ideas happen here said...

Not Skype, but other screen sharing software can also offer you the chance to share screen effortlessly. I recommend ezTalks.