Skype for the iPhone

April 7, 2009 Tips & Advice No Comments

Hi, my name is Amr and I’m the manager of the Egyptian office of zuuMedia. I’ll be contributing most of the Apple related entries. To kick off my first post, here’s a quick review of Skype for the iPhone.

The official Skype client for Apple’s iPhone was released over a week ago. I’ve been using it since the first day it came out and have to say I absolutely love it. However, this is not to say it’s flawfless. More about that in a bit.

Primarily, Skype for the iPhone is by far superior to the other 3rd party iPhone Apps. Not only does it retain some of the visual and audio elements of its desktop counterpart, but it’s also quick and responsive. The iPhone app has 5 tabs for contacts, IM Chats, calls, history, and profile. The call tab allows you to call numbers from your main phonebook contact list while the Skype contact tab shows you your Skype friends along with their profile picture.

Clicking any of your Skype contacts will allow you to call, send an IM, or view more profile info.

The Chat feature is not too unlike the interfaces of other IM clients. Conversations are all shown in a list and clicking on a conversation will open it up for you to exchange text. New conversations will light up a blue dot and be placed in a sub tab called New IMs.

It should be noted that you can have group chats but only if you’re invited by someone on a computer. In other words, you can’t start a group chat from the iPhone Skype client.

The Call tab displays a big dialing pad not too unlike the normal iPhone 3G pad. Given that you have Skype credit, you can dial any landline or mobile phone around the world. The initial dialing and ringing sounds come out of the iPhone main speaker but once the call is routed and connected, all phone sounds come out of the phone ear piece. This is a HUGE and fundamental feature – for me anyway – that was not available on any Windows Mobile phone I’ve ever used with Skype. This feature makes Skype calls feel just as natural as regular calls.

Calling quality is on par with normal calls. I have not experienced any delays or poor quality except on high bandwidth consumption WiFi hot spots. On my home WiFi in Cairo, Skype calls from my iPhone to my bestfriend in the US sound just as great as normal phone calls.

It should be noted, however, that you cannot make or receive calls on 3G. This feature (the only iPhone Skype feature, really) has been explicitly blocked by Skype due to Apple and AT&T’s terms and conditions. You can get around this if you jailbreak, of course.

You CAN have IM chats over 3G without having to jailbreak.

The History tab keeps a record of your incoming, outgoing, and missed calls.

The Profile tab allows you to set your online status as well as change your picture and mood message. Additionally, it displays your Skype credit, Skype-in number(s) and voicemail expiration date.

A crucial feature missing from this release is checking voicemail. There is no way to listen to your voicemail from the iPhone Skype client.

There is also no way to send and/or receive files. However, even if this feature was added it would probably be limited to pictures since the iPhone lacks a file browser in the true sense of the word.

Another drawback, though not actually Skype’s fault, is lack of multitasking support. If you click the Home button, you quit Skype and thus can’t receive phonecalls or IMs. While the iPhone OS 3.0 may offer push notifications for new IMs, as evidenced by icon badge numbers, I can’t see how this would work for calls.

Regardless, having the official Skype app on my iPhone makes keeping in touch with friends around the world much easier, given that you have WiFi. Even on 3G, the Skype IM feature has proven itself to be quite valuable.

Good job, Skype. Hopefully Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 and the next version of Skype will solve some of these issues and create an even better and more productive/useful mobile platform.

Here are a few screenshots of Skype in action: