Skype

Hi, the login sound Works for me but the logout sound doesn't work. I just log out when I'm done with the mobile client and the logoff sound doesn't play.

Can you believe that I love using Skype on my phone more than my PC? Only problem I am having is if I am in another application and get a Skype call it shows up in my notification and I have no clue on how to get to the caller and accept the call. Probably something as silly as a double finger tap might be the answer.

Skype for iPad was just updated to 4.18 but as the release notes indicate, there are no new features or changes that are visible to the user. There hasn't been any accessibility changes either.

Also, it's great hearing that you like the app.

I tried two fingers double tapping and now skype does hang the call.
I have tried it in versions before 5.x and for me it did not work. Now it does. I have not tried this gesture to accept calls, but it would be a huge advance to implement it in case its not yet implemented.
Some times you don't have time to access the notifications, find the skype entry and accept the call. Hanging the calls with two fingers is important because calls are not aloud by default, meaning tthat you will only hear what's going on if you put the device near your ear. But for hanging the call you needed to remove the device from near your ear and then, because the sound is going through the internal speakers, you could not hear voiceover very well to find the button to end the call... and, as expected, if you put your ear near the phone to try to hear the touch screen would be disabled and you could not make nothing else ....
This problem however still happens when you need to do anything bbut hanging the call * two fingers double tap now does hang the call. If you are in a call and want, for example, to enable video, you have this problem, as you also do if you need to press any button on the call screen.
It really would be better if there were a gesture, say two fingers swipe right or left that would enable or disable the sound through the external speakers, so that if I need to run voiceover I can swip say right, make whatever I need to hearing voiceover aloud and then make the oposit to make the sound return to the internal speakers. The call could go also aloud to the external speakers. It would not be a problem at least for me I thimk

Actually all you need to do is tap ear piece then speaker. and you dont need the ear piece at all.I can do this with in about 5 seconds of answering a call.

Hi folks,
I have followed this thread, and maybe I can get some help. I am impressed with the accessibility of skype in regards to wha I've read on here. I do have an issue, and maybe someone has a way I can do this.

My phone is locked and i get a call. My skype will sound. By the time I go to authenticate with my fingerprint on iphone 5s, the program opens, and I find the answer button, sometimes the call goes to voice mail. I've changed the time from 15 seconds to 45 seconds within skype itself, but I think 4 rings is the default, and it seems like it needs more time.

Did I explain things right? I know what I need, but don't know if I explained it right.

I think you can majic tap to answer the call. dont' quote me on that as I don't receive enough calls on skype for ios to test. lol!

I'm sorry? What is magic tap? Confused.

Magic tap is double tap with 2 fingers.

Hope that helps.

What's New in Version 5.5

Optimized for iOS 8
Interactive notifications: manage calls and messages from the lock screen, banner notifications and from within the notification center.
To enjoy interactive notifications, make sure that you have notifications enabled for Skype in Settings -> Notifications

Audio and Video Calls
From the lock screen and the notification center:
• For incoming voice calls – swipe left on the notification to answer or decline.
• For incoming video calls – swipe left on the notification to answer with voice or video.
• For missed voice and video calls – swipe left on the notification to call back or send a message.

From a banner notification:
• For incoming voice calls – pull down on the notification to answer or decline.
• For incoming video calls – pull down on the notification to answer with voice or video.
• For missed calls – pull down on the notification to call back or send a message.

Messages
• From the lock screen and the notification center:
• For new messages – swipe left on the notification to reply.
• From the lock screen:
• For new messages – pull down on the notification to reply.

General improvements

that didn't seem to do anything within the lock screen when I tested it last night.

This sounds great, but does the swiping left and right work with voice over, or are we swiping down or up for getting options?

Taking different actions on notifications outside of the app is a new feature in iOS 8. How the feature works is defined by iOS but what actions are available is defined by the app (Skype).

On the lock screen, you swipe up and down with one finger (with the notification selected) to switch between: "Activate", "Answer", "Decline", and "Delete" (for incoming calls with Skype).

"Activate" is the default action and opens Skype without answering or declining the call (but takes you to the call screen for an incoming call).
"Answer" opens Skype and answers the call.
"Decline" declines the call without opening the app.
"Delete" dismisses the notification and removes it from Notification Center but doesn't decline the call.

If you are in another app and receive a notification from Skype you can swipe down with three fingers (just like scrolling) to reveal the other actions, for example: "Decline" and "Answer" if the notification is for an incoming call. These actions do the same as in the lock screen.

If you are using iOS 7, if you are already in Skype when the call starts ringing, or if you opened the app using the "Activate" action then you can use magic tap (double tap with two fingers) to answer and hang up the call (on the call screen in Skype).

So instead of "swipe left on the notification" you swipe up and down to select an action.
And instead of "pull down on the notification" you swipe down with three fingers to reveal the actions (and then swipe left or right to select an action).

Hi,
I don't know about the rest of you, but I do notice when I'm on a call for skype, and either I get another call, or my skype in number calls, it rings once, then it plays a busy signal. Should it not allow you to answer or send the call to voice mail?

What's New in Version 5.5
Optimized for iOS 8
Interactive notifications: manage calls and messages from the lock screen, banner notifications and from within the notification center.
To enjoy interactive notifications, make sure that you have notifications enabled for Skype in Settings -> Notifications

Audio and Video Calls
From the lock screen and the notification center:
• For incoming voice calls – swipe left on the notification to answer or decline.
• For incoming video calls – swipe left on the notification to answer with voice or video.
• For missed voice and video calls – swipe left on the notification to call back or send a message.

From a banner notification:
• For incoming voice calls – pull down on the notification to answer or decline.
• For incoming video calls – pull down on the notification to answer with voice or video.
• For missed calls – pull down on the notification to call back or send a message.

Messages
• From the lock screen and the notification center:
• For new messages – swipe left on the notification to reply.
• From the lock screen:
• For new messages – pull down on the notification to reply.

General improvements

Skype for iPhone version 5.6 update brings native resolution support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+
• Presence indicators are now displayed in the "recent" list
• Number of contacts and time zones are now shown on contact profiles
• Individual conversations can be marked as read/unread
• Notification sounds are disabled in "Do not disturb" mode
• General Improvements

yes
david promised much but did little or nothing ...
with this is already the fourth update since he showed up in the forum, and so far have not done anything related to the feedback of the forum community ...
in chat conversation nothing was done ...

this 5.6 update is proof of that.
nothing new ...
david why you came to the forum to promise too much and too little done?
promises we are already tired ...

sorry but had to say ...
I apologize if I'm wrong ...
for me, this topic die here ...
cheers.
cheers.

For me chat messages seem to read OK, and other issues people have raised are quite difficult to sort. Remember David is one part of a team and so he probably doesn't have the final decision on things.

I'm having no issues with chat messages. they read for me just fine. I don't need for them to read out loud all the time especially since I don't use skype for chat often. at least not on ios.

hmm then not quite sure what the fuss above was all about, personally I like having them automatically read and if they didn't I would just stay on older skype versions. I also like them reading automatically on the windows pc, but that is down to jaws scripts I believe.

I'm sorry that you feel that we haven't listened to or acted on the feedback in the forum.

I joined this thread when I saw that all of you were saying that automatically reading new messages didn't work in the 5.2 update. I had seen the same feedback for the 5.1 update and really thought that it was working now. It turned out that I didn't fully understand what was being asked for. Since I don't rely on VoiceOver, I only felt that automatically reading messages would be useful one conversation at a time. In fact, I thought it would be distracting and confusing to read them automatically when something other than that chat was on the screen.

I tried to discuss this feature with all of you to learn more about how it would be most helpful. One example of something I would have never thought of myself is to use a sound to make a difference between the chat that is on screen and other chats.

These changes shipped with 5.4 and as far as I know it is working well. If new messages are not being read automatically when you are in the app, then that is a bug that needs to be looked at but I am not aware of any problems with it right now.

Version 5.4 also fixed deleting conversations from the rotor, which was mentioned in this thread (and reading when a contact is offline (even though that one wasn't mentioned in the release notes)).

Other areas like indicating when someone is typing, posting a notification when someone comes online, problems with external keyboards, and where the sound comes from during a call has been looked at or is being looked at. Unfortunately I can't promise that something gets done even though it gets looked at. And some work takes more than a single version before it gets released.

The one area where I feel that no improvements have been released to the public is Skype for iPad. I really can't say much about that. Sorry.

Hi David. I agree, what you have given us is awesome. It's working perfectly so far, as much as I can tell.
I'm certainly not having any problems with Skype for iPhone. In fact, I wish that the iPad version was updated to be much like this version.
But of course, that is not up to you. We simply have to wait for the main team to release the version for the iPad.
Keep up the awesome work in providing access ability for voice-over users of Skype for iPhone. I for one, am thankful for what you have done.

hi david. after a little bit of testing, some friends and i have identified that there is a small bug with automatic reading of chats.
automatic reading of incoming chats works perfectly while not in a call. but if you are in a call on the device, you don't get chats read to you automatically.
thought this would be the best place to put this, as it's likely going to get to you faster.
hope you can help fix this little bug.

hmm this is exactly why I think we need to have a range of settings for VoiceOver users. For me I wouldn't want chat messages read automatically on a call, I would be fine with a sound playing just to indicate a message had come in, but I think for me messages reading on a call might be annoying.

Both the iPhone and iPad versions are developed by the same team and we also want to release the new iPad versions as soon as we feel that it is ready.

I think that's the way we intended for it to work (that an ongoing call has precedence), thinking that reading messages would be distracting. The visual indications of new messages are also removed during a call. However, there may still be a bug there. We'll have to look at it.

In either case, it's one of those cases where there isn't really a single right answer for what the correct behavior is.

Exposing more settings for accessibility in general is something we will have to reconsider. I can't say what (if anything) or when that would be but we will at least discuss it internally. Many questions regarding how things should behave come down to personal preference and some added customization could be useful. Looking at what Apple is doing, they offer very little customization in general but a fair amount of customization for accessibility.

David, a very well made point.
Just a thought, if you decide to go down the road of offering increased accessibility options, might there be some scope for members of this community to assist with testing, and looking at available settings before public release? as I am sure you would far rather have issues ironed out buy testing than include them accidentally in public releases, and I guess it would be good for you to get feedback on settings if any that you make available.
Also as we will be the ones using settings on a daily basis rather than general consumers I wonder if you might find testing helpful.

hi David. I'll define the problem a little more. yes, if I am inside the active call area, it makes sense that automatic reading would not work, as of course, you can't see the chats there. how ever, if I am still in the call, but I move back out to the chat area, so as I can read chats in the same call / group, I have to read them manually, they don't read automatically as they come in, as they would without a call running. so although the visual notifications, and voiceOver notifications of chats would in deed be suppressed in terms of being in the active call screen, IE, where the calls controls are, when you are actually back out where the chat display is, it should automatically read as normal. that way, I can read the chats if I want to, but if I don't want to see the chats, much like any sighted user, I'd move back into the call screen.
hope that helps to redefine the problem a bit for you, so you can identify the bug.

Unlike other ungreatful individuals, I'd like to sincerely say thank you to David and the other Skype devs for their hard work. Please know that the comments made by one person are quite definitely not shared by all of us. You just can't please some people, I suppose. Nothing is ever good enough for them. But as you can tell, a whole lot of us appreciate all the hard work. This is not an easy thing to do, I don't envy all the difficult things a developer has to go through. So thank you!

yep, I agree totally. David is a huge asset for us, and to the skype team. it's awesome to see them taking our constructive feedback. to David, don't worry about those who make comments saying things like have been said. a lot more of us appreciate you, then don't.

has anyone tested the video group calling on skype? and if so is that accessible? I have not had the chance to test it as I don't right now hve the bandwith.

also, I'm unsure what the button in settings does, the option to go off line after let's say an hour of skype beeing in the backround. would that not apply anymore since apple's rule is 10 minutes then the app quits and just leaves a short cut to it in the app switcher?

First of all, thank you. I'll make sure that everyone knows that the work is much appreciated.

Regarding new messages not being read when you navigate back to the chat while on a call. It's a choice of which "context" is most relevant: that you have a chat on screen or that you have an ongoing call. We give an ongoing call a very high priority and conflicting things like playing sounds or displaying notifications gets ignored. However, even when ignoring those there are still some things that the visual UI does that one doesn’t usually think about (like still showing new messages on screen in the chat). It’s something that requires a second consideration.

Regarding group video calling. That is only supported on desktops. You can have group audio calls on iOS or video calls to a single person. But I don't see why it would be any more or less accessible than a group audio call.

Regarding automatic sign out. That setting has already been removed from the iPhone app (which is newer).

Skype will soon open up for external (invited) beta testers of Skype for iOS, via TestFlight on iOS 8.

The beta testing in itself is not focused on accessibility, and you may encounter builds with unfinished features, bugs, and regressions. However, you will also be able to provide feedback during development, when it's easier to change or rethink features.

I have edited out my email address from this post and instead refer people to this post on the community site. The survey it links to doesn't ask about assistive technologies, but I'll recommend that you mention that in the "Have you participated in any other pre-release programs?" text field.

If you've already sent an email, it has been forwarded to the people responsible for the pre-release program.

Hi David, I have a bug to report here. You try to fix every bug we tell you, we thank you for that, but you forget fixing one bug: When people close skype without actually signing out, then they seem online all the time, which deceives the people WHO wish to call those fake online people. And people don't sign out because they don't want to type their password again and again. Please take care of this bug. Thank you.

There is a fix for this. but you need the computer version of skype to do this. I have the email from which I got the work around here. Here is it.

Hello,

Here's a solution from a friend of mine and I think it works:

If your friends see you on Skype constantly online without you actually being online, it is due to you have logged in on Skype via a mobile device and you haven't signed out successfully from Skype on the mobile device. Accordingly, Skype's servers think you are constantly online, because they have not received a request for a log off from  Skype on the device. In order not to bother with this nonsense and to solve the problem and for people to start seeing you again normally, do the following:
1. Enter into your own Skype account from a computer, via the Skype desktop client.
2. Open a random chat window.
3. Type the following command:
/showplaces
After sending a message, you should receive a response that shows you how many places you are online. If you show that you are registered in more than one location, type the following command:
/remotelogout
4. To make sure that you have successfully logged off from all other devices except the current again execute /showplaces again and you should see a message with just one device.
5. Exit Skype and your friends should see you as ofline, as you are.
Hope that helps.

What's New in Version 5.9: - Quickly call people and groups straight from the new chat picker (tap the new chat icon and choose who to talk to). - Improved dialer that searches for Skype contacts as a phone number is entered. - General improvements.

The dial pad works a bit differently than it did before. It now includes a list of recent phone calls that you've made and searches through phone numbers of your Skype contacts (but only on iPhone 5 and up). There is also a second "action" on the phone number text field in the dial pad that allows you to change the country code (same as the separate country code button).

There are a few label mistakes that slipped through in this release. Sorry :(

Apart from the new languages and under the hood improvements in version 5.12, there was also some accessibility improvements and bug fixes related to the emoticon picker (for two bugs that were present in 5.10 and 5.11).

In the latest version of Skype, I can't find where you can search for new contacts by Skype name. Someone please help me.

Try launching skype and searching in the contacts section. Explore the app and what's around by explore by touch and you will find a lot you might have or might not have missed. Skype really is easy, or shall I say easier to use in iOs then it previously was. I don't search for contacts anymore but use the table index as that is easier and more convenient s I have over 900 contacts on my skype list.

OK, nevermind, I found it. It was under the "More" tab at the bottom of the app.

For some reason, though, none of those tabs were initially showing at the bottom of the app. Weird.

Cool cool. blame tech for misbehaving. Or in my case about 99 percent of my mistakes are id10t errrs. Lol! Hehahahaha.

What's New in Version 6.0

·   Beautiful redesign - built for iPhone.
·   New simple navigation, making it easier to use the Skype features you love.
· More powerful search, so you can quickly find conversation content, groups and contacts.
·   Better multi-tasking - easily switch between your call and chat screens to share photos, web links, your location and more while you talk.

If anyone's wondering, it's quite safe to update to this new version as it's actually even better than the last one. For the contact list, there is now support for the actions feature so you can quickly make a voice or video call or whatever. In other places, buttons are labeled and some controls have help hints. So that's definitely a job well done for Microsoft.

They really have done a tremendous job with accessibility in this latest update!

The only issue I've really had is a focus issue when navigating through the Contacts list by swiping right. Sometimes focus will jump around a lot.

hi guys. latest version of skype has a pritty major problem in the call screen. most of the buttons, IE mute and things like that, including the speaker button, have no names. some have strange emojis, and some just say button. skype, please fix? ...

Have you posted this on the skype community forums? They read and respond to those in a timely manner.

I've noticed this as well. Very odd.

I just contacted their twitter but if someone beats me to it, contact them on the skype community forums. And go in to extreme detail.