street sounds in Delhi. When I travel abroad, it has become my main mode of keeping in touch with people back home. Imagine my delight when I was on a snorkelling trip on a small island called Koh Rock in Thailand with my cell phone signal really low, and I get a call from a friend in the US who is using SkypeOut to call me and we have this really cool conversation then.

I love the fact that people can leave me voicemails ... and that they can be really long long ones - a friend once left me one using the full 10 minutes :).

The two most compelling features for me are the voice quality and cost. More in-your-head, all ears, as Stuart said earlier. Quality of sound is far superior to even what I have on my landline - there's barely a crackle. Its changed the way I listen and participate, and is a great sensory experience. I can't wait for Skype Video now!

Chat:

One person and multiperson chats. Conference chat panes that are like running your own Yahoo "Chatrooms" or IRC channels. Here you select a topic, add those you want (no unwanted walk-ins) and stroll in and out when you wish - you will still be able to see all the activity there. The pane lives on. Its nice to pick up threads at a later time around a specific topic.

And you have archives of all text conversations. Why would I need other messengers anymore? Many are replacing their IM clients with Skype.

Transfers, reminders, notes, pings:

But its not just about voice communications and chat ... its the total package. I find it so utterly tedious to use email when I could just so easily send a ping on Skype, or transfer a file, not worrying about file size. I've been getting a lot of really awesome music from a friend in the UK this way - somehow my perception is that its quicker than when sent as an attachment to an email or synched in a space like Groove. Moreover, I don't need to bother with locating contacts from my address book or about typing in a subject. The Skype UI makes it so so simple.

Presence:

At several levels - the most basic is the invitation to call when you see someone is 'online', or the knowledge that you shouldn't be disturbing someone right now. This doesn't happen with landlines, and unless you send an sms in advance, not on cell phones either. I personally still prefer to send a small chat ping before I call someone, unless I know them really well, in which case, I call them any which way.

The beauty is in the spontaneous chats and calls I often have. How often have you felt you have a small query and would just love to pick up the phone and clarify or get a point of view or an insight, instead of writing email and waiting for a response, or then waiting for a scheduled weekly formal conference call? With my sort of job, where I have clients in the US, it’s too expensive to just pick up the phone and call someone in India for a small clarification, and usually perceived as not warranted. Also, due to the time differences between India and the US, as a client, one would hesitate to just pick up the phone and call someone at say 11 pm at night.

Skype counters these barriers – first, my client knows whether I am online or not through the presence indicators on the main window. Second, if he sees me there he sends me a brief note – Dina, u available for a 2 minute call? Then its easy – you don’t worry about intruding into someone’s space at odd hours, you don’t need to wait to get your clarification, and it costs nothing.

Another aspect of presence that strikes me with Skype - picture this scenario - you are away from home, you call you family on Skype, you whisper goodnight to them and then keep the call going all night so you can hear your spouse breathe and your little baby stirring ... how wonderful it would be to have video as well. And all this at no extra cost.

Skype presence is not just in-Skype, you can display your presence info anywhere on a website, your blog, even in your email. Its also great for work-groups and project teams that are using collaborative spaces for developing concepts, for instance. Its all within your control, still I wish Skype would allow different levels of presence for different persons on your buddylist. There are times when I want to appear 'online' for just a few persons on my list of 88 contacts ... and thats not possible currently.

Community:

Linked to presence is the feeling of community. Imagine a scenario where every web page your name appears, a Skype presence button appears too. Some might feel you're opening yourself to spam .. my view is more optimistic, since you can set your preferences to filter unwanted pings through requests for authorisation, and just accept messages and calls from contacts on your list. Why optimistic ... because you're telling people who are reading what you write, "I'm open to a conversation with you", and willing to engage with those who have a shared interest.

Moreover, saying you're a 'Skyper' is a tag, just calling yourself a 'blogger'. You say you're 'Skyping' and not in a call. Its more than just a label, its a sense of belonging. While there are Skype forums, VOIP forums etc that you see a lot of the developers in, for those less interested in the tech aspects, its still saying, somewhere we are on the same wavelength. Tremendous potential for social networking services, dating sites, community spaces, workspaces with colocated teams, and even on expeditions in mountains.

We're trying to collate stories on how people are using Skype. Here are some links I found. We'd also love to know how YOU use Skype.

- What are your occasions of use?
- Is it a complement, supplement or substitute to some other form of communication?
- Or is there new traffic being created?
- What is it replacing in your basket of communication products both online and off ... IM clients? Landlines? Cell phones?
- What new benefits are you deriving?

Do drop in your own stories or links to other pieces you might have read.

Jeremy Wright:

I’ve decided to stop using MSN Messenger, as well as every other IM client out there. I now use Skype exclusively. It’s small, fast, versatile and gives me everything I want. I get free calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world for free (and with near-CD voice quality), I can make calls to phones nearly anywhere in the world for roughly 2c/minute, and I can accept calls to my Skype account. I even have voicemail.

I love Skype.

Group chats. Conference calls. Sending of files. And it works across the firewall. I haven’t turned on MSN in over a month, and I have no plans to start now.

Rasmus:

I installed it on a machine at home before heading to Paris and have been using it to talk to Christine from Paris. I also got my parents to install it by themselves and have had 3-way conference calls with me in Paris, my parents in Toronto and Christine in California. I have also called landlines in the US from Paris and Christine called my hotel landline in Paris using Skype. Overall the quality of all these calls were amazing. Every now and then there would be a slight drop or when 2 or 3 people all spoke at once it would occasionally garble things, but it is definitely the coolest piece of software I have used in a while. Although I may have to invest in a headset for it. You get some strange looks when you sit there talking to your laptop.

Carl Franklin, host of .NET Rocks:

Using Skype on Friday for VOIP - no phones! We're going to try using Skype and some clever audio routing on Friday to do the show, instead of taking calls on the phone. So, if you want to call in, go download skype now from www.skype.com and get yourself a headset with a microphone. We'll publish a page with instructions on how to call in once we get closer to Friday. Are you as excited as I am?

Robert W:

Been using Skype in the US for keeping in touch with my Girlfriend. For over two years now we have been saving large amounts of cash using Skype over any of the other VoIP services. Sure there are other products but this one worked so smoothly even she could use it..and that is some feat!! hehehehe...anyway, I also use the SkypeOUT feature and for about 1.7¢/minute I can call out to anyone in the US...so I buy another 10-euros (about $13 right now) every few months...the call quality is outstanding and have never had a single hiccup with the SkypeOUT or regular Skype that was not related to something on my system of hers.

Since the SkypeOUT calls are PC-Landline Phone there has never been a problem. I even call my Grandmother across town just to give her the thrill of using the internet even if it is in a passive manner.

Jeff Pulver:

The team at Skype has done a great job in helping a new generation become aware how easy it is to communicate using VoIP. But before any of us can talk about a true communications revolution, we need to take a hard look at the communication habits of this segment of the "always on" generation and see how much, if any, of their core communication needs is being replaced by the advent of services like Skype rather than depending upon their cell phones and/or other communication products & services.

Edward Vielmetti:

I spoke with Valdis Krebs this afternoon who was high over the Atlantic flying SAS on his way home from eastern Europe. He was talking to me using Skype, and not paying anything extra for the call over and above the $29 fee he paid for 6 hours of wifi service.

The flight used Boeing's Connexion service. Skype sound quality was as good as ever - he didn't have a separate mic and was just using the built-in on his Mac Powerbook.

Peter Cochrane:

For the last few months I have been experimenting with Skype in particular for voice connections when I travel. During the last six weeks, all of my telephone calls - Skype-to-Skype, Skype-to-mobile and Skype-to-fixed line - have been via a headset and my laptop computer. ........ In short: my mobile phone bill has plummeted from $500 a month to less than $10 a month. The number of times I have had to use my mobile phone in the US during the past two weeks can be counted on the fingers of one hand. For the most part it is people calling me on my mobile that dominates my usage. My outgoing calls are now few and far between. The prevalence of low-cost or free Wi-Fi across the US means I am at most paying for a local telephone call in the destination country.