Skype Group Calls Now Let You Have Up to 50 Participants

Microsoft's Skype is one of the most popular services for video calls, and its ability to serve group calls makes it a popular choice for corporate and business video conferencing. The service is available on multiple platforms for smartphones, computers, and even the Microsoft Xbox One series of gaming consoles. Skype has now added a new feature to its core service, allowing up to 50 participants in group calls. The feature is rolling out now, and is a big step up over the previous limit of 25 participants.

Skype had only last month started testing the feature, and it is now rolling out for users across all platforms that the service is available on. This is being implemented through groups formed on the app, and groups with up to 50 participants now support both video and audio calls.

Group calls are also no longer brought to your attention by ringing as a default option, although you can change your notification settings for group calls. By default, users will now receive a simple notification to join a group call, which will make it less intrusive for users that tend to keep default notification settings.

Skype now allows more participants in group calls than FaceTime which allows up to 32 people in a single call, but enterprise-focused software such as Zoom allow you to have up to 100 participants on a single call. Skype is particularly popular among non-enterprise users, so this new feature might be useful for personal use, such as groups that have your family or friends.