Advice: Skype 101: A primer…

Step One

Grab the latest version from skype.com – it’ll only offer  you the version you need – Mac or PC – so you’ll be good to go in a few minutes…

Step Two

Install the program, and it’ll put an icon either on your Desktop, in your Taskbar, or on your Dock – either way, open up the Skype.

Step Three

The first thing it’ll do is ask for either your Skype username and password, or for you to sign up as a new user on Skype.

Step Four

If you haven’t already, sign up: your username is your public ‘tag’ that people see you by – so make it a decent one – one that you’ll be happy promoting…

Step Five

Then begin adding your contacts to the contacts list: There’s a PLUS sign at the bottom, and you can ‘find’ people by their location, by their email, or by their Skype username. The username option is the most direct – although you might have to use your ‘normal’ channels of communication to get the Skype usernames of your friends/family/clients/colleagues.

Just for the record, my Skype name is ‘rebusiness’. Sure, it’s obvious – but it works.

Step Six

Once you have added a friend from your end, THEY will be asked by Skype to verify that YOU are allowed to contact them…  It’s a safety net so that you can’t spam the entire world, and no-one can spam you. Once they approve you, you’ll both see each other in your contact lists.

The Skype contact list will show you their statuses of your buddies: active, away or busy. Active is when they’re using their computer. Away is when there’s been no activity after a preset time – usually 10mins or so – as if their screensaver was one or the’d gone for a coffee… Busy is that they’re there, but not taking calls. There are other options, too – feel free to explore them and set your own custom ‘out to lunch’ message.

Step Seven

Now – how to use it: essentially two ways: text and voice/video.

Text is easy: click on a contact and choose to chat to them by text. It’s a good way to keep a conversation going that doesn’t require your full attention. It’s also a good way to see if colleagues can assist you with queries, without having to call or stop them from working…  In that way, text chatting is convenient and subtle – as opposed to the ‘drop-everything-and-answer-the-phone’ nature of the telephone.

Voice calls are exactly the same as a phone call: click the contact and choose voice (or voice and video!).

If the end user is on Skype, the call is free. Free free. The video isn’t too bad (getting better!), but if it affects the audio quality then go back to simply voice only. I’m not fully convinced that the world is ready for video calls just yet. The entire freelancer/web design industry might fall apart if clients were able to see their subcontractors developing web sites in their pyjamas… … Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

If the end user isn’t on Skype, then you’ll need to pre-add some Skype ‘credits’. It’s an effective way of making cheap calls from you (on Skype at your end), to a *real* phone on their end. It’s normally a fraction of landline call costs, but closer to par for calling mobiles.

There are also Skype In credits, too – so you can use Skype on your computer as a real/pretend landline. It does cost a few shekels to use per inbound call, but it can be routed to ‘find’ you wherever you are in the world for that same few shekels – something to consider to well-connected travelers.

How to avoid the echo-chamber

My final piece of advice is to grab a pair of in-ear headphones – iPod headphones will do nicely – and plug them in while you’re talking on Skype. 

When you’re making a normal phone call on a real phone, your ear soaks up the sound from the speaker, so none of it reaches the microphone. In audio terms, a real phone doesn’t feed back.

But when you’re talking on your laptop, the speakers and the microphone are very close together, so the person at the OTHER END will hear themselves speak in an echo chamber…  Surprisingly, YOU won’t hear the feedback – only them…

Hence, it’s more convenient, and far more polite, to put in a set of earbuds when having a conversation – both for your buddy on the other end of the world, as well as for anyone within close proximity to you locally. 

Feel free to test it out…

I’m online on Skype most days, so fire it up, and give me a test call…  callto://rebusiness 

Hope this helps!

AB out