Designed and developed by an entity of the same name, Skype is a free to use software application that is intended to help users keep in touch with their family and friends by using their computers and internet connection to implement a video chat or voice call. With this utility, you will be able to chat with friends, video-conference with your colleagues, and even make phone calls to acquaintances that live across the world. Calls made to other users of this service are free, while calls made to land phones and mobile phones come at nominal rates. You can implement this utility in Windows based platforms, including Windows 7, XP, and Vista versions.

The latest version of the software claims to offer enhanced features and better integration with apps like Facebook and software like Microsoft. The tool offers a simple registration process that allows you to create a user account for accessing their service. Recent enhancements ensure that you can also use your existing Hotmail or Facebook ids to login to this service, instead of creating an entirely new user account. This also means you can add the contacts and friends in these apps to your Skype account. The tool is integrated with a synchronization feature that keeps your contact list updated in both applications.

The tool also claims to have enhanced its user interface, by offering a cleaner view and better arrangement of tabs and icons for a more intuitive and user-friendly navigation and accessibility. All these enhancements are making this tool one of the most-sought after VoIP client software. Skype claims to offer one of the best video chat and online call quality. Compared to its previous versions, this claim stands to be quite a positive aspect. However, your technical capabilities and connection speeds also have an impact on you call quality. After all, it is an online service and your net speeds and connection quality does matter. All the same, its service and simple registration process are aspects in which it definitely scores.

Some of the prominent features offered by this application are video chatting and messaging using peer-to-peer technology, SkypeOut calling option that allows you to make calls to mobile phones and landlines, video conferencing function, and transfer of files using its secure medium. The tool claims to offer end to end encryption to secure your calls as well as your file transfers. It also offers the option to share your screen space with multiple users.