Microsoft has begun rolling out Skype 8.66 to all users less than three weeks after making it available to users in the preview. The release notes for this latest version are not different from the one released to preview users, with the biggest feature being the addition of support for up to 100 participants in a Skype call.
With the advent of the pandemic forcing users into working remotely, video conferencing platforms have gained popularity due to the need for remote collaboration and networking. While the Redmond firm’s own offerings like Teams gained the ability to host up to 300 participants, Skype had been limited to 50, until now. Of course, Teams is aimed at businesses and offers much more functionality for remote collaboration.
Regardless, small businesses, educators, and even general consumers that rely on Skype for meetings can now add up to 100 participants on the desktop, web, and mobile platforms.
Additionally, there is the usual suite of bug fixes that accompany the new features:
- New messages don’t pop up at the top of Recent Messages.
- The language settings automatically changed to English.
- Signing out freezes the app on Android.
- Issues with uploading or downloading files.
- Issues with favorites disappearing from the contact list on Windows.
Small tweaks like the fix for new messages not showing up will indeed improve the usability of the app. Microsoft says that the rollout is gradual, so it should be a couple of days till the update shows up for all users.