Skype 8.66 begins rolling out with support for up to 100 call participants

[Karlston]

Skype 8.66 begins rolling out with support for up to 100 call participants

 

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.

 

 

Skype 8.66 begins rolling out with support for up to 100 call participants

 

[ FrontPaged here... Skype 8.66.0.74 ]

 

[BimBamSmash]

100 call participants in a video conference? I can't even imagine that in real life - unless the great majority of the participants are just what you call the audience.

 

This way of communication still has a way to go before it reaches where it needs to be.

 

I "experienced" one of these with 11 other participants, most of whom I hadn't met face-to-face before.

 

Unless they were addressed before they started talking, it was really hard to tell which portrait was active at the time.

 

Portrait frames seem to change colors when someone starts talking but there is often a lag. They also seem to get lit by ambient noise too. At least in my one-time experience, it kept happening and that was quite distracting, if not annoying. That system can go completely nuts (and hilarious!) when arguments erupt too.

 

Oh, and don't get me started on connection timeouts. Portraits won't just disappear. For a while, they remain in place with a static image of the last picture frame that was transmitted from them. Usually it is not easy to tell if there were timeouts. Most people either assume the other party simply can't hear them or, more likely so, they're lost in daydreaming in a world/dimension far, far away from that video conference (happens all the time in all kinds of meetings). Oh, and that static picture frame could also become the subject of memes and jokes too!

 

I am sure things will improve over time - maybe they already have. I should ask around, see what folks who are doing it on a daily basis think.

 

But man, managing a 100 participant video call cannot be a smooth sail for anyone.

 

At least you don't have to worry about air conditioning. Or all the inconveniences of getting the majority's approval to open or close a window or something. Or feeling awkward about leaving the session to answer a call from "nature", etc, etc, etc.