Created by Estonian developers, Skype continues to be one of the most popular messengers in the world. Among its other advantages is the ability to make individual and group calls (both voice and video) and not pay anything for them.
Why skype? Conventional group conferences may require complex set-ups as well as specialized equipment. For a group call in this messenger, you only need a computer connected to the Internet, a microphone and a video camera. In addition, today almost everyone has Skype, users rarely have to additionally install this messenger.
Benefits of Skype video conferencing
Video conferencing is one of the most demanded services among the messenger audience. Why?
- First, because it's simple. In order to contact friends or colleagues, it is enough that everyone has a camera on their device and any, or better, the latest version of Skype is installed.
- Secondly, it's free. The app does not charge users for calls from one account to another.
If a potential interlocutor has not yet installed Skype, then he can go to the official website of the application and download its version for his device (smartphone, tablet, PC or MAC).
After installation, you need to add future conference participants to your contact list. This will activate the ability to make video calls.
Technical requirements
In order for a skype video session to be successful, certain technical requirements must be met:
- First, the device itself should work well and not freeze.
- Secondly, the speed of the Internet connection must be greater than 1 Mbps.
It is optimal if the video conference is created from a computer with a good Internet connection and system parameters.
How do I create a video conference?
In order to create a group video call, you need to dial any of the participants. To do this, select it from the contact list in the left pane.
In the area that opens on the right, click on the button on which the camera is drawn.
In the window that appears, you need to find the button on which the plus (+) is drawn, and click on it. After that, a number of options will be displayed, among which you must select the option "Add participants to this call ...".
All users who are currently online can be added to the call.
There is another way to start a group video call on skype.
To do this, the user needs to click on the button with a plus (+) drawn in his profile. It is located in the field on the left, under the username and status (online, out of place, offline, etc.), right below the search field.
This button creates a new conversation. In the window on the right, a field will appear in which the user can select the contacts he wants to add. To add a contact to the conversation, you need to select it and click the "Add" button.
This path will need to be repeated for each user to join the conference. When all participants have been added, you can make a group call.
To do this, just click on the button on which the camera is drawn:
Then you just have to wait for the conference participants to answer.
Number of video call participants
How many people can I add to a video conference?
Together with the creator, 25 people can participate in the video call. That is, one user can simultaneously communicate with 24 more people.
The video of the creator of the chat and 9 more interlocutors will be displayed on the screen at the same time (each in its own window), the rest will be heard, but not visible.
Can I change the composition of the video conference participants?
It often happens that a user creates a conference for many people, and then it becomes necessary for him to exclude some participants. Should he re-create the conference and re-add the right people to it? No. Skype allows you to exclude people from an existing conversation. However, only the creator of the conference can do this.
In order to exclude a contact from the conference, you need to move the mouse over his avatar and click on the red cross.
If the user wants to end the group video call, he just needs to press the red button "hang up".
You can also configure other parameters of the conversation - change the avatar, change the name, etc.
What else can you do in a Skype video conference?
In addition to all of the above, the user during a group video call can do the following:
- Enable and disable video and microphone.
- Show and hide the contact list.
- Send files and contacts to other conference participants.
Skype remains one of the most widespread messengers in the world for a reason. It regularly improves its free services and gives users the ability to stay in touch with loved ones and work as a team, even from different parts of the world.
Skype is a good tool for organizing conference calls, also known as group calls. Its popularity is primarily due to its free nature and the ability to connect up to 25 participants to the conversation. Therefore, it is worthwhile to understand in more detail the question of how to create a conference in Skype.
Conference calling features
All participants must be in the chat administrator's contact list. Therefore, to begin with, you should make sure that each person is on your friend list before initiating a call.
If a user wishes to add someone who is not a Skype user or someone who is not currently online to the group, they can be added using an established call through a cell phone or landline. In this case, payment is made using the conference initiator's Skype credits.
Before making a conference, you need to check:
- communication, quality of internet connection;
- whether the latest version of the program is installed;
- whether the sound and the operation of other devices necessary for the call (microphone, headset, speakers) are correctly configured.
How to create a chat on a PC?
A Skype conference via a personal computer is created as follows:
- Open the program and log into your account.
- On the toolbar, select the "Contacts" item. In the list that appears, select the "Create group" tab, or use the key combination Ctrl + N.
To change the name of the group, you need to open the item "Empty group" and enter the desired name. In the same window, you can add an avatar, change user settings, customize the receipt of notifications, and automatically allow new members to be added to the group via Skype.
To add new members, you need to click on the person's image in the upper right corner, a list of your contacts will drop out. By checking the boxes next to the desired interlocutors, you will add them to your conversation. Only the administrator can add new members, that is, the person who was entrusted with organizing this group. At the same time, as much as he wishes. But no more than 25 people can join the conference, including the moderator. It should be noted that the maximum number of participants makes voice chats not very high quality.
Features for devices with the Android operating system
If your Android mobile device is connected to high-speed Internet or Wi-Fi, you may also have access to a conference in Skype.
Often the owners of such gadgets ask themselves the question: "Why can't I add to the created chat?" If we are talking about video, then the Android OS cannot yet offer its users such a service as a teleconference.
Another reason why the conference cannot be connected is that not all people participating in the conference entered the chat from their mobile devices.
To add a new user to the dialogue, you need to press the plus sign during the conversation and select a specific subscriber.
As far as text messaging is concerned, there are no quantitative restrictions. You can add or remove any friend from your address book.
Thus, Skype remains the most popular program for maintaining communication between people anywhere in the world. If the chats do not work for any reason, you should first check whether you are connected to the group, the network, and whether the application itself has been updated.
Skype is one of the most popular applications for communication between Internet users. The program allows you to exchange text messages, as well as make audio and video calls. Skype appeared in 2003 and has gained great popularity among private ones and. Versions of the application exist for desktops, mobile phones, set-top boxes and even most modern TVs. Ease of use has made it the most popular means of voice communication over the Internet.
First of all, they use Skype for using the World Wide Web, which can significantly reduce the cost of a call. In addition, the company offers to use a variety of additional services, among which there are both paid and free. For users, calls to landline and mobile phones all over the world, connection of phone numbers, sending SMS and other services are available for money. Development today allows you to communicate with several users from different parts of the world at once. What is a conference in connection with several subscribers at once? We will try to answer these and related questions in this article.
Skype conference. What is it?
Skype is very popular with business people who often have to discuss business issues with several clients or partners at once. In addition, it is also convenient for an ordinary person to communicate with two or three friends or relatives at once. This is exactly the problem that the Skype conference solves. We will analyze how to create it a little later, but now let's see how this function appeared in the application.
The history of the appearance of conferences in Skype
Initially, the program was conceived as an analogue of the ICQ type instant messengers popular during this period with the ability to make calls. Therefore, there was no conference on Skype. The developers of the application thought about how to create it a little later, when they realized that people want to discuss many issues in groups. At that time, the Internet speed of most users was rather limited, and it was decided to shift the functions of supporting group communication to the company's servers. This is how skypecasts were born. However, they did not last long, and their format was different from the one offered by the conference on Skype. How to create an alternative to group communication between a large group of people in the company - they did not come up with, and after passing under the control of Microsoft, apparently, they completely forgot. In the program itself, it remains possible to make group calls. A little later, users received the implementation of video conferencing.
Skype conference: how to set up?
Before you start creating a call or video conference with a group, you need to make sure of the technical capabilities. The peculiarities of the implementation of the protocols used in the program are such that the main load will occur on the equipment and channel of the organizer. You will have to take care of a good speed of the Internet connection and sufficient or other device on which the application is installed, for example, for this reason, a conference in Skype on an iPad cannot be organized in video mode.
On almost any platform, you can set up a group call with just a few taps. The easiest option is to simply call one of your contacts, and then select the "Invite to join conference" option for the others, or use the "Add to conference" icon. If you have to make calls to the same group of people quite often, it will be more convenient to save it in your contacts list.
Restrictions
Does a conference call with 100 contacts at once have a lot of restrictions? Unfortunately, no one can answer this question, since the maximum number of participants in a group call is limited. A maximum of 25 people can be added to a voice conference. Communication with several subscribers via video communication is now included in the free Skype package, but a maximum of 10 people can be connected. Also, you cannot use this function for more than 100 hours per month, 10 hours per day, or 4 hours at a time. A number of platforms do not support video conferencing at all, or they can work in a more limited mode, allowing you to communicate simultaneously with no more than five people.
Modern people are focused on systematic communication with each other, using not only mobile and landline home phones, but also Skype as a successful communication tool. If earlier it was possible to talk on Skype only together, but to communicate with another interested person, you had to make a call again, but already to another subscriber.
How to create and set up a Skype conference.
Currently, Skype manufacturers have presented their customers with a unique opportunity to expand the list of communication participants to twenty-five people. Having become interested in such a proposal and expressed a desire to create a conference on Skype, it does not at all interfere with getting acquainted with how to carry out such actions in practice.
Conference Creation Guide
Skype users note positive changes that have been observed in this program over time. Using such software, it is possible to talk not only together, but also three, and even with a large number of participants, who are determined by the one who initiates the video conference. Of course, in this case we are not talking about an infinite number of participants in the dialogue, but, despite this, it is possible to conduct a successful video conference, reaching a little more than two dozen users.
In principle, anyone can create a video conference in Skype by inviting those with whom it is so important to communicate at a particular moment. It is only necessary to take into account that the initiator of such a dialogue must have high-speed Internet. If the Internet is accompanied by a low speed, a video conference can be organized if there is a desire or an urgent need, but at the same time the number of participants should be minimal, it is desirable to communicate with three.
Instructions for creating a conference
In order for the three of you to be able to talk, you first need to learn how to create a conference in Skype. If you have never performed such actions before, our recommendations will help you understand the sequence of performing certain manipulations. In particular, start Skype initially.
In the top menu bar, find the "Conversations" parameter, move the mouse cursor over it, go to the "Add people" line, left-click, confirming your choice.
Now a window will appear on the screen, consisting of two fields. The left side will contain the entire list of contacts, and the right side will display only those contacts of your acquaintances whom you want to invite to a joint discussion of the issue. Participants can be selected in two different ways. The first involves the selection of participants separately. To do this, after hovering the mouse cursor over the desired contact, it remains to click on the "Select" button located below.
You can save your own time, select all the participants by holding down the "Ctrl" key and each time selecting a new participant, and then after selecting everyone you want to invite to the conference in Skype, click on the "Select" button.
Sometimes it becomes necessary to communicate with several people from the contact list at once, so that everyone can hear each other and can come to a consensus or discuss something in common. Audio conference in Skype as opposed to group video conferencing- the service is free and is created in just a few clicks. Moreover, up to 10 participants in such a Skype conference call quality is usually excellent! And in total, up to 25 subscribers can participate in such a free conference, including the organizer himself. how to create a conference in Skype? Step-by-step instruction.
There are two ways to select people from your contact list. 
1.
From the top menu Conversations - Add People... A page with two windows appears: the left one with people from your contact list, and the right one is empty, where the list of conference participants will be formed. You can transfer attendees one at a time by simply clicking on the name with the left mouse button and then clicking on the virtual button Select... Or you can save time and effort and move the entire selection list to the right window at once. To do this, press the key on the keyboard 
Ctrl and holding it down, left-click on the desired names, the blue background immediately shows which of the contacts has already been selected. After that, once left-click on the virtual button Select, and the list in the right window, as seen in the screenshot, is ready! Now you need to left-click on the virtual button Add, and your participants are ready to talk!
2.
The most intuitive way- adding contacts to the conference directly from the well-known left column of Skype with the names (and avatars) of your contacts. Likewise, while holding down the key Ctrl on keyboard, 
left-click on your contacts, and they immediately fall into the upper right eye, and their names are duplicated at the bottom right of the screen. Release the key Ctrl, and you can start the conference.
Communication during the conference can be carried out in two ways:
1. Chatting between all participants.
2. Conversation between the conference participants in compliance with the usual "no interruption" rules in effect in everyday life. To start a conversation, you need to left-click on the green virtual button Group call.
If during a conversation you need add new member, just click on his name on the left side of the screen and, without releasing the mouse button, drag him to the top right margin of the screen to the rest of the participants.
you also can add regular phone owners to Skype conference... Such a call will also be free if you have a subscription to any Skype tariff plan. And if there is no subscription, then it will not be unprofitable to pay for such a call from your Skype account. Believe me, sometimes such small expenses can be fully justified by the result of negotiations!
I want to note that the organizer of the Skype conference must have fast Internet (not less than 1024Kbps
), therefore, if you yourself cannot boast of such a data transfer rate, it is better to choose a participant with a high-speed Internet as the organizer from the very beginning, so that the conference goes smoothly. And you also need to remember that the conference organizer is the only person who can add new participants during the conversation, so changing the rules of the game during the conference will no longer work.
Personally, being thousands of kilometers away from my colleagues and partners, I very often use the possibility of Skype conferences. However, from my own experience, I can confirm that good audibility without interference is maintained with the number of participants before 10 people... For webinars for a large audience, you need to rent a larger conference room. 
If, after negotiations, you want to view the correspondence during the conference or then reuse the already prepared list for the next Skype conference, then on the left side of the Skype screen you can easily find the past conference by a green icon that somewhat resembles a flower.
Finally, for those who prefer group video conferencing there is good news: the official Skype website offers try this service for free for 7 days!
Thanks for reading the article and possible comment! All the best!
My Skype is m.v.g.aqua
