Skype Beta with Video Conference Calling Now ready for Download

Skype has launched the beta version that brings group video calling to Skype users. During the beta test the conferencing version is free although when the beta ends in a few months there will be a small charge to use group video calling features.

With the new version up to five people can conference together at the same time and see and hear each other. The new version is only available for Windows at the moment and all those who want to use group video chat need to be running the latest beta version.

Skype do warn that the software is still in beta, so a few bugs may be found here and there but in general it’s quite close to production.

A list of the full features can be found below…

Up to 5-way group video call
* Redesigned calling experience
* Improved video snapshots gallery
* Improved browser plugins performance on some websites.
* Reduced false positives on browser plugin phone number recognition.

Changes:
* Call host is not displayed anymore in the user interface
* Windows 2000 is not supported in this Beta version

Fixed issues:
* Microsoft Lifecam Show webcamera crashed Skype
* CPU usage was high on low-end computers during video calls when using a TouchCam N1 or Twincam encoding camera
* ‘Test’ button name was changed to ‘Record’ after testing
* Skype did not always ring on all audio devices when it was selected to.
* Accessibility was always turned on
* Skype browser plugins for Internet Explorer and Firefox ignored meta tags not to highlight phone numbers.
* Skype browser plugin may have hanged or frozen Internet Explorer browser.
* Refreshing webpage turned off phone number highlighting in Internet Explorer browser.
* Skype browser plugin highlighting tags become visible in webmail
* The Skype browser plugin highlighted phone numbers and names while creating content on various popular websites.
* Skype sometimes crashed when importing contacts through welcome screen.
* Only one field change was saved when editing phone contacts.
* Skype sounds were not working over remote desktop

Download available over here.