By The folks at Skype have revealed that the Android version of the voice, text, and video communication application has surpassed 70 million downloads.
The app first launched in October 2010, and while it got off to a really bumpy start (a resource-hogging app combined with a small amount of compatible devices was annoying) it has since come a long way.
The app is now compatible with over 1,300 devices from many different manufacturers, and it has been localized for 16 different languages. The infographic reveals that Samsung dominates the boards when it comes to usage of the Android version.
The Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, and the Galaxy Ace are the top four out of many, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Galaxy S3 up there soon. Check out more of the infographic at the Skype Blog.
Skype have also put together a tips and tricks article for those who want to get the most out of their Skype experience. You can find that on thier blog here.
I don’t use the skype app for my phone since it doesnt have a front facing camera. Instead I use IM+ to access skypes text communication stuff on my Galaxy Prevail.
Now all they need to do is make it consume less battery. Being on Skype 24/7 has caused some massive battery drain. :/
Doesn’t it have to actually work first before it can drain the battery???
Huh? I get a few force closes, other than that it works pretty well.
So you get force closes and massive battery drain, but you still think it works “pretty well”???
Hahaha, touché.
Honestly, I’ve been trying to get Skype to run properly on a smartphone for about 10 years. It’s about 6 months since I last tried it on Android, so I suppose I’ll give it another go. It’d be handy, since I use Skype all the time on my netbook (it doesn’t run very well on that, either).
I use it cause Google Voice Videochat doesn’t seem to work on AT&T LTE, which is shocking since videochat is the only way I will ever need to buy a more expensive data plan. You’d think with tiered data, they’d want us to use more data?
Anyways, thanks skype for providing an alternative to carrier blocked google services.
You can video chat in Google+ over 3G.
I think it’s really annoying how I’m forced to use Google+ for features like automatic photo uploading and video chat over a cellular network.
The carriers are certainly to blame. App devs have a responsibility to make the best app possible with the best features and I don’t think they left out the 3g functionality because they wanted to.
Why doesn’t Google Drive automatically upload my photos, or why isn’t it an option in the account sync screen? I think it’s goofy that I have to download and sign up for Google+ to get that done. I have a blank account just for that purpose.
I don’t have a good answer for you. But I would speculate that since facebook has accrued a lot of power, and is not using it responsibly, google took the moral high ground to make people sign up. But that will probably be a feature of google drive in the future
The main reason why I will never use Google +, is because I read that if you post anything anyone else might find offensive that violates the terms, Google will cancel or suspend your entire Google Account! Because I have my phone number, etc attached to my Google Account and Google has been known to censor conservatives unfairly, I don’t feel comfortable having my phone be potentially shut off for free speech I might make that Google might not appreciate. I simply signed up to use the features of the app and won’t use it for ANYTHING else.
I feel confident that if you are making educated posts, no matter how offensive, you will not be banned.
I just used skype to call someone today….only because it was a free number xD
Other than that I never used it once after the day I downloaded the app
I’m guilty of downloading it like 10 times just to video chat before I got Yahoo messenger and used that instead or using google talk for video calls much better quality and calls hardly fail.
70 million downloads is extremely impressive for such a flaky app.
I just spent a week on the road recently. I set up Google Chat for video so that I could call home each night. That was a great idea until I found out that my Google Chat app video only worked with a wifi connection. The Wifi at the hotel and conference I was at was so impacted it didn’t work. I installed Skype and had a great video chat experience each day with my family over 3G with my Galaxy S2. I’ve since read that there are some hacks that will enable 3G video chat on Google but why should I bother? Skype worked throughout the week flawlessly. Skype is one of the first apps I installed when I got my Galaxy S3 last week. And believe me, it hurts me to say that because I am a Linux admin and pretty much despise Microsoft, Skype’s parent company. But in this case I have to begrudgingly give them props.
You can video chat in Google+ over 3G.
The reason you should do the hack though is so you have one less app to worry about and maintain.
Plus, I want to know what this hack is. I have been thinking about looking into it for a while but I have no idea how much time it will take to do.
Skype on Android has the worst video quality compared any other video chat apps available….
Why did my comment get deleted? There was nothing bad in it.
Do they count uninstalls too? Didn’t work with ICS when I tried it recently.
Worked good on my ICS rom on the Galaxy S 2. Works on the stock Galaxy S3 which is ICS also.