During the past few months, Microsoft has been making products that were previously a premium service, free. For example, Windows on devices with screens smaller than 9 inches is now free for OEMs, and even Windows upgrades, such as 8.1, were free as well. And with Skype, Microsoft has been slowly making premium features free.
Earlier this year, Microsoft made group video calling free with Skype, and today they are making screen sharing with more than two users free as well. As long as you have the latest versions of Skype, this feature should now be unlocked for you.
It seems quite obvious why Microsoft is moving the non-business features into the free product category. By keeping users hooked into the Skype platform, they will be more likely to use premium features such as the ability to call land lines or cell phones from within the app. More so, it keeps users from jumping to other platforms to achieve basic requirements for a chat service.
Microsoft has already positioned Skype as the company's preferred messaging platform and has more plans in the future about how to integrate it into other services. While there may have been a few bumpy roads in the past, it appears that the platform has stabilized and is once again turning into a great product.
Source: Microsoft
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