Skype Beta is the newest version of this popular VoIP app, now more integrated with Facebook than ever.
Just bear in mind - as it is a beta, it's not final and could still be a little buggy. If you'd like to stick with the stable version, check out the standard Skype review instead!
Facebook integration has been improved in this version. Previously, you would have to create a Skype account and then log in with your Facebook account but now you can log in only using your Facebook account, which makes getting started with Skype much quicker.
Besides checking what your friends are up to on the Facebook Wall – which you could already do in the previous version – this new Skype lets you interact with their posts by liking or commenting on them, and more importantly, use Facebook chat right from Skype. In this way you can chat with your Facebook friends from a much more comfortable interface.
Skype Beta also offers a few details about your Facebook contacts, though if you want to check their complete profile you’ll need to open that up in the web browser. Also, if your friends have included their phone number in their Facebook profile, you’ll be able to call them via SkypeOut right away.
Besisdes Facebook integration, the new Skype Beta includes improved call controls, which are now larger, more elegant and easier to use, and the ability to share the screen in computers with more than one monitor. On the downside, this beta is quite heavy on system resources, and very unstable as well – we had lots of problems while making video calls during our tests.
In this newest version of Skype, users can log in with their Microsoft IDs and will be able to send messages to friends using Windows Messenger, Xbox, Hotmail or the new Outlook.com.
The new beta of Skype offers better call controls and an almost perfect integration with Facebook –but it’s still pretty unstable.
