Skype for Android lets you make voice or video calls or send instant messages. Now you can also use it to send files including photos or pre-recorded videos over the internet.

To get the new file-sending feature, you just need to grab the free Skype 2.6 app from the Android Market.

File-sending is available over WiFi or 3G connections and the service is free — but you’ll have to pay for any used data minutes on your own.

Skype 2.6 also offers better battery life and video quality improvements on phones and tablets with NVIDIA Tegra 2 processors. The company has also added new graphics and improved the voicemail and sign-in functions.

Skype has rolled out an updated Android app that adds support for 14 new devices — including a couple of tablets running Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb and up. Skype 2.5 is the first version of the voice, video, and text chat app that supports video calling on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola XOOM, and Acer Iconia Tab A500.

The new app also adds support to video calls to the Google Nexus One and a couple other phones. What’s significant here is that the Nexus One doesn’t actually have a front-facing camera. This means you can see the person you’re talking to, or share the view from your rear camera. But you won’t be able to conduct a face-to-face call on the Nexus One.

If you’ve been using Skype on your device without any problems though, you might want to hold off on the update — since Skype 2.5 is also the first version of the company’s Android app to include in-app advertising. If you’re a paying Skype subscriber you won’t see any ads. But if you only use the software to make free calls to other Skype users and haven’t bought Skype credit to use with premium features such as placing calls to telephone numbers, the old app is ad-free. The new app is not.

GroupMe is a group messaging service that lets you create groups from the contacts on your smartphone and start conversations involving everyone in the group. The company offers clients for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 and also works over SMS.

Today Skype announced that it’s acquiring GroupMe — which actually means Microsoft is buying GroupMe, since Microsoft acquired Skype recently.

Skype offers voice, video, and text chat services for PC, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices. Earlier this year the company also acquired Qik, a service for recording and sharing short videos.

In a press release, Skype says the GroupMe acquisition will bring the company’s expertise in “text-based communications,” location sharing, and photo sharing to Skype. In other words, we could see group messaging capabilities coming soon to Skype’s mobile apps — as well as some of the company’s SMS features which allow you to engage in group communications with non-smartphones.

Skype has rolled out a new version of its Android app with support for video calling on 17 more Android devices. The company says you can now make video calls on the “majority” of Android devices. Skype users can place free voice or video calls to other Skype users for free. You can also make relatively chap calls to domestic or international telephone numbers from Skype.

Odds are if you have a recent phone from HTC, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson, you should be good to go. A few phones from LG and Acer also made the list.

Unfortunately Motorola Droid phones, and my Google Nexus One aren’t officially supported. But there’s an option to enable or disable video calling on any device. If you’re using a phone that hasn’t been certified, you get a warning message letting you now that performance might not be all that good though.

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It took a little longer than expected, but Skype has finally released an iPad app. Early this morning a new version of Skype optimized for Apple’s tablet hit the App Store… and then it was pulled. But now it’s back.

The new app allows you to make voice or video calls or send instant messages to other Skype users for free over a 3G or WiFi connection. You can also make cheap calls to telephone numbers if you have SkypeOut credit.

Skype has offered an iOS app for the iPhone and iPod touch for ages, but the new version is optimized for the tablet’s larger display. There’s a multi-panel layout, with your contact list on the left and other information on the right, including instant messages, history, or profile information.

When you’re in a video call you’ll see the person you’re talking to in a nice big full-screen view, while a small window near the bottom of the screen shows what you look like so you can check your hair. You can also switch between the front and rear camera on an iPad 2.

Skype for iPad is available as a free download from the App Store.

While Skype isn’t the first company to offer video chat for the iPad, the popular service does have a huge user base and support for multiple platforms, which means you can now place calls from your iPad to a PC, Mac, or Linux computer, an iPhone, iPod touch, or Android device, or even some internet-connected televisions.
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Skype launched version 2.0 of its mobile app for Android this week, adding support for 2-way video chat. The only catch? The feature only works on 4 supported phones. If you don’t have one of those devices you can still make voice calls to other Skype users or to telephone numbers using the app, but you’re missing out on one of Skype’s biggest features.

Fortunately, it took all of about a day and a half for someone to crack open the app and figure out how to make it work on additional devices.

Not all phones are supported. I was able to install the hacked version of Skype 2.0 on my Google Nexus One and on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. While the Galaxy Tab has a front-facing camera, the app crashes every time I try to login. I’m guessing the app simply wasn’t designed for tablets running Android 3.1. The Google Nexus One gets a little further… even showing an option to place a video call. But when I click the button the screen turns sideways and then… nothing happens. I’m guessing the app doesn’t know what do on phones that don’t have front-facing cameras.

Anyway, there are definitely reports of the hacked version of Skype working on some additional handsets. If you want to give it a try, just make sure your phone is configured to let you install apps from unkown sources (you can probably find a check box in the Applications menu in your phone’s settings) and then download and run the .apk installer from the VillainROM forum.

Skype has finally added video to its Android app. You can now make free voice or video calls to other Skype users from your Android smartphone. It doesn’t matter if the person you’re calling is using Android, iOS, a PC, or even a TV. Video calls work over WiFi or 3G connections.

That’s the good news. The less good news is that Skype only supports video calls on a handful of phones. You need Android 2.3 and a front-facing camera. Right now the only phones that are officially supported are the Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, and Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro.

There’s no Skype app at all for tablets running Android 3.x Honeycomb.

Skype 2.0 for Android also features a redesigned user interface with a new start screen that lets you call phones, view your contact list, or see your profile or history. There’s also a “share” button for updating your Skype status.

You can download Skype 2.0 for free from the Android Market.

Competitor Fring recently rolled out support for 4-way video calling on Android and iOS — but not only do you need four friends to take advantage of that one-upsmanship, but you need four friends that actually use Fring. If the company keeps beating Skype to the punch, it might not be that hard to find people willing to give Fring a try, but for now Skype has a much larger user base which makes today’s announcement pretty big — even if it only affects Android users with a few handsets.

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Image Credit: CNET

Skype offers apps for voice, video, and text communication for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone. But so far there’s one platform Skype doesn’t support: the Apple iPad. That changes on Tuesday when Skype is expected to launch its first iPad app.

The folks at CNET got a sneak peek at Skype for the iPad. They say video calls look great over a WiFi connection, but less-than-stellar when you’re using 3G.

The overall layout looks like a simplified version of Skype’s desktop applications, with a contact list on the left and big video windows on the right. The dialer, contact list, detailed contact info and other features also hang out on the right.

As with Skype’s iPhone app, you can use the iPad app to switch between the front and rear cameras or even make voice-only calls by keeping the camera turned off.

It’s probably a matter of opinion whether Skype’s iPad app is better than Apple’s Facetime video chat service. But there’s one key difference: Skype already supports a number of different protocols, so the person you’re calling doesn’t have to be using a Mac or iOS device.

Skype also briefly posted a demo video demo on YouTube today before removing it. You can check out a soundless copy someone saved after the break.
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