While MSN Messenger is all but defunct, ending over a decade of online chats, Skype has been filling its shoes fairly well. Now owned by Microsoft of course, Skype was traditionally a free way to call friends and family abroad. It's extremely popular for doing just this, including video calls too and the company is actively changing its price plans. For instance, group video calls moved to a fee-based service in a somewhat unpopular move, but are now free again.
It's offering a number of new services too, which go beyond using Skype as a means to contact friends and family overseas. Instead they're aimed at anyone that uses a cell phone or landline, especially those that make and receive international voice calls. Skype contacted me recently to investigate one of its most intriguing features - Skype Number.
This subscription-based service, which currently costs $5/£3.35 a month based on a 12-month sign-up, gives your Skype account its own number. This works both ways, in terms of getting in touch with people; instead of you appearing as a random international number when you call someone, you'll appear as a dedicated number. Likewise, they can assign your name to this number and add to their address book or speed dial, just like they would a cellphone or landline number.
To see how well it works, for a week I used my Skype-enabled iPhone 5 to make and receive as many calls as possible. To start with you need to set up Skype Number. Interestingly, you can assign yourself a local number in any one of 24 countries, for instance an 020-London number or 315 New York number. This means than if you talk regularly with clients in that area, calls for them will be cheaper and you'll have a more familiar-sounding number too.
You can even assign several numbers to your account from different locations, although for group call purposes, you're only able to connect to one of your assigned numbers at once without third party software. As for call charges, if your number is the same local code as your contact, they'll pay a local rate. If it's a national or international then those charges will apply as per their own non-Skype call plan.
Once you've decided on a country or countries, you can then pick your actual number. Unfortunately, this isn't that flexible - for instance, you're not going to be able have something easy to remember such as 224466 or 123456. However, you can type in a specific set of numbers to see if it's available and Skype offer up numbers too.
From here you have a couple of options. You can use your PC or Mac to make and receive the calls as normal, or using your smartphone or tablet, you can essentially give your mobile device its own separate number to make and receive Skype calls. I've used an iPhone 5, and there are a couple of things you need to do in order to use it as a Skype phone.
By default, it likely won't ring or vibrate when you receive a call - not ideal if you want to use it to replace your existing cell phone number. However, it's easy to fix. Head into Settings, then Notification Center, and find Skype in the list of programs.
Click on it, and you'll be presented with a variety of options. You need to turn on sounds, show in notification center and show in lock screen, while at the top, you need to select either banners, or for a cell phone-like experience with calls, select alerts.
This should now make your iPhone ring or vibrate when you receive a Skype call just like it would with a real call. Your Skype number account should be activated straight away, so go ahead and test it. I closed Skype on my iPhone and used my PC to call my usual number and as you can see here, you should see your chosen number appear in the number field.
For Skype to pick up calls on your iPhone, you need to have it running in the background. You don't need to have it open, but it needs to appear in the multi-tasking list that you can view by double-tapping the home button. If you swipe up on Skype here, it will disappear and you'll need to re-open Skype to be able to receive calls.
Most of us use our PCs for our Skype conversations but to save fiddling around with headsets, using your cell phone could make things much easier. Thankfully, you can be signed in to each device and both will be able to receive a call at the same time, giving you the option of using either device.
So, having used Skype Number for week, what's my verdict? Well, despite Skype saying that Skype is not a telephone replacement service, that's certainly the direction the company appears to be taking. Skype Number can be hugely useful for those that work at home. The ability to have multiple international numbers can make projecting your business abroad much easier, especially for what is quite a low fee.
There are limitations of course. If your contacts need to get hold of you while you're out and about, you'll be reliant on a good 3G or 4G data connection, whereas your normal voice calls via a cellular network will be much more flexible. Skype Number works best at home, under a WiFi signal so there's still a way to go if it's to compete with smartphones here.
As for landlines, the only real difference is that you can't make emergency calls using Skype. If you have other people in the house that often tie-up the landline, Skype Number could be very useful too, giving you a cheap second line that you can access either via your PC or smartphone.
Do you use Skype regularly? Would Skype number be useful to you? Feel free to let me know in the comments on on twitter @antonyleather.
