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Remarkable features of Skype

Secrets

The hidden secrets of Skype


When the new Skype (that is, version 8 or higher) was released, users found that the program no longer supported the command line parameters that allowed to start several accounts at the same time or to create a portable Skype. In fact, not everything is as sad as it seems, and at the request of users, I decided to tell about the parameters of the command line in the new Skype. As a matter of fact, I planned to collect more information first and only then publish the article, but since they have already switched to the new Skype or are planning to do it, I'll have to tell only what I know and checked by myself (at the same time, other useful information may also come up).

Let’s say you created a group chat in Skype, but you left it accidentally or intentionally and accordingly, you can no longer manage it. Nevertheless, what if you want to restore the administrator role in this chat?

The answer to this question depends on whether you can join the chat again as a regular user, and whether the chat room remained without an administrator. In other words, you cannot independently restore administrator privileges if there are other administrators in the chat room or for some reason you cannot return to the chat.


Many users already have noticed recently added Skype emoticons Auld, Lang and Syne, but it seems not everyone knows that these emoticons have been drawn in such a way that you can create a chain of dancers by sending several emoticons in one message. The number and order of emoticons does not matter because in any case, all the dancers will hold hands dancing in rhythm (the only thing, do not add spaces between emoticons).

Probably, many of you have noticed that there is a user with the login echo123 in the Skype contact list – moreover, you haven’t invited him, he got there automatically. The fact is that the contact echo123 is not a man but an automatic robot that was created by the developers in order to help Skype users to test and eliminate errors, associated with audio calls.

During the installation of Skype, the contact echo123, also known as the Skype Test Call, Echo / Sound Test Service and Skype Test Call (echo123), is automatically added to your contact list so that the user had the opportunity to test the performance capability of the microphone and speakers. When you call to echo123 (call directly on Skype or simply click here), an automatic robot with a polite voice will suggest you to record the conversation (or rather what you’ll say), and then will reproduce it to make sure that your microphone and your speakers work properly.


Attention!

Since 16.01.2017 everything that is written below is out of date — method doesn’t work anymore. I’ll try to find other ways, and if I find a working version, I’ll let you know about it. Of course, I will be glad for any help.

Once developers have abolished username when registering on Skype, many users wondered how to register a new account in the good old days when it was possible to create a beautiful username?! Well, at the time of writing this article there is at least one way to register a new Skype account by specifying your own username.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, in older versions of Skype for Android you can still indicate custom Skype username at registration. The fact is that for old versions a built-in registration form is used.



Most of users of the Skype program use only the basic functions and enjoy them, not knowing that this program, though free, supports much more interesting and useful features. It is for this reason that I have written this article — that all our readers knew about the commands in the Skype chat and could take advantage of them. I hope that with time I will be able to tell you about all the secrets and hidden features of this program, but for now, I offer you a description of all the commands available in the Skype chat.

When the recent versions of Skype 7.0 for Mac and Skype 6.21 for Windows have released, it has become known that the developers have added the text formatting feature in Skype chat. Thus, now Skype users can send instant messages using bold, italic, strikeout and monospaced text. Of course, this is only a partial text formatting, but it is good that they have listened to the users.

To format the text, Skype offers a simplified markup language that consists of various symbols (asterisk, underline, tilde) and tag {code} (or more convenient way, are symbols ```). As I understand it, the developers have created their own markup language (or at least I don’t remember something like that was used anywhere), which, in my opinion, is not a good idea, as users would be more convenient to use something already familiar (e.g., bbCode, Wiki markup or, why not, HTML). Of course, I can be wrong, but time will tell, how quickly the users will get accustomed to this markup language and come to like it.

With the latest updates, Skype brings virtual interlocutors named "Skype bots" which will help users to automate various processes and perform different tasks. Skype bots are available only for messaging, but the developers promise that in the future bots will become available for audio and video calls.

At this moment, Skype bots are available only for users from such countries as Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Singapore, and US (of course, in the coming days, the bots will be available in other countries). Also should be noted that Skype bots are available only for latest versions of Skype for Windows, Android and iOS.


Tomorrow, will be the Premier League football match between Liverpool and Arsenal, and the designers have decided to please Skype Liverpool fans by adding to Skype "Liverpool FC" emoticons. From this it can be concluded who are favorites of the developers.


Santa
Before the New Year, Skype designers decided to please users and released 6 new emoticons for New Year holidays. Five of them can be seen on the emoticons picker. But "Santa mooning" and is hidden and you can send this emoticon only by knowing its code.


Recently was released version 7.12.0.101 of Skype for Windows and it contains a very interesting and useful feature — the Skype Translator, which can translate the messages and caller's voice. Unfortunately, this feature is still not available to all users — update wave should reach all users in the coming weeks.

But, as promised, I will tell you how to speed up this process and will teach you how to activate Skype Translator. Of course, before you start reading this article, upgrade Skype to 7.12.0.101 version — it is possible that the translator is already included, and you can skip these instructions on how to activate it.

Recently (to be precise, 1 or 2 days ago), the designers added 14 new emoticons for Skype, each of which represents the logo of different Microsoft products and services. For the most part, these are components of Microsoft Office, and also logo of the search engine Bing, the browser Internet Explorer, cloud storage OneDrive, personal e-mail Outlook and Skype for Business.


Thanks to the URI scheme skype: a free Skype program provides an easy way to initiate calls, chats and other actions directly from web pages or from desktop and mobile applications. As well as other schemes like http: (runs the browser) or mailto: (runs the mail client), the skype: scheme allows you to run Skype (of course, if the application is installed on your computer). Moreover, if you pass additional arguments to this scheme, Skype will also perform other, more complex actions.

This article will be useful to web developers and website owners who want to add a link to their site in order to allow visitors to contact them via Skype. For a more convenient and quick way to create links, I recommend using Skype buttons instead of usual links, since it combines all the possibilities of the URI skype: scheme in one simple button; in addition, it is easily customizable and unlike a usual link, you can notice it immediately and understand what it does.