Article by George Norman

On 18 Nov 2011

Skype, company that is now owned by Redmond-based software giant Microsoft, announced yesterday that it rolled out Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows to the public. The announcement should attract the attention of the gaming community because Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows comes with a feature gamers have been asking for: Push to Talk.

Skype explained that for a long time now gamers have been asking for an easy way to stay in touch with others when playing multiplayer games. Skype listened and introduced Push to Talk in Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows. This feature lets you set up a hotkey that will toggle microphone muting on Skype calls. Go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Hotkeys to set up the hotkey that will do that.


Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows comes with another great feature: you can place Facebook-to-Facebook calls; you can call Facebook friends from Skype, even if those friends are not on Skype. Connect your Skype and Facebook accounts, select a Facebook friend you would like to talk to, and hit the video call button in Skype; that friend will pick up the call from Facebook.

“This new development in the Skype-Facebook partnership is the latest example of how Skype is removing communication barriers and making it easier to connect with friends, family and business colleagues. Our approach to social is about personal connections with people. We are on a mission to connect over one billion people and our continued partnership with Facebook brings us one step closer to this goal,” said VP of Product at Skype, Rick Osterloh.

If you would like to get Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows and test the new Push to Talk feature, you can grab it straight from Skype here . But before you do, you need to know that the Beta has a few other new things to boast about.

In the spirit of keeping things nice and short, I will list the other new things Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows has to offer:

• Group screen sharing – share your entire screen or just an application window with others when you’re in a conference call.
• Contacts handling – Facebook contacts handling got some small updates. Skype revised how the online status is show on Facebook (when you’re Away in Skype your status is automatically updated as Idle on Facebook). Skype added the option to be invisible for everyone on Facebook by logged into Skype. And last but not least, changes were made to how Facebook contacts are displayed in your Skype contacts list.
• Bugs – various bugs have been addressed.

Tags: Skype, Facebook, Microsoft

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