Hi,

I migrated from skype 3.8 to 4.0 and then back to 3.8 due to lot of things didn't work as expected. Now I'm trying 4.1 Beta and here are some Suggestions/Improvements for your consideration.

1. It is still using high amount of CPU/Memory compared to 3.8 (But improved over 4.0). I noticed on my video call, my CPU is jumping from high 60s to low 40s. Memory used is over 110 MB while on call and over 80 MB while Idle. Please consider to bring it down considerably. Else it is going to affect the other parallel works while using skype.

2. Where is the "last seen:" option when you mouse over a contact. It is been there in 3.8 but disappeared in v4.0 and not come back in this beta version too. This is useful option as I can see whether the contact person waited for me or not (certainly this doesn't violate their privacy!).

3. Consider to bring the History back as previous version. (I know its there. But I do not want to go one extra step to click every time). Either it should share another tab next to conversations or skype should remember when I open history and show me next time when I click conversations.

4. This one I've not tried in beta, but surely a big problem in 4.0. When we are in a call, add another contact for an conference call and after a the added contact leaves the conference, we no longer able to share the video unless we disconnect and initiate another call. Please make sure that it doesn't follow 4.1 as well as its really annoying.

I'll keep posting to this topic as and when I see a room for improvements and welcome everyone to submit their Suggestions/Improvements so that we can make this version of skype better rather then talking about UI which I see in entire forum.

Thank you for your time and hope to see my Suggestions/Improvements gets implemented in the next update!

hover mouse pointer directly on the contact's status icon, not the name

Hi Neil,

Thanks for your assistance in finding that one! I appreciate it.

Actually, in skype for windows forum there's a topic similar to this (that handle in a single post all the "wishes", the link is in my signature). But anyway thanks for your effort, this will make skype, or at least skype community, better

Hi community. I am trying Skype Beta too over Windows 7 RC and realized that for some reason when I had the Skype Add-on installed over IE8 made IE8 get really slow (stopping until respond again) - not responding.

As Windows 7 is about to be released in October, but anyway this problem occur with IE8 I think is time for Skype to fix it soon.

Thanks for your posting.

I will reply to your points in here.


Skype uses quite a lot of CPU while on video call and it is intended to do so, because we wan't to deliver the best possible audio/video quality on a call. This of course needs some system resources.



Try shortcut key's for switching between views. They are alt+1,2,3.
You can also browse history per conversation inside conversations. which makes it rather easy to search for single history items.



Same thing is still in 4.1 beta also. You need to start new call to get video back. It's done because on conversations call and chat are tied now and also the left participant can call himself back into conference call.



This issue was supposedly fixed with the new Skype browsers plugins included in Skype 4.1 beta version. It was known issue with previous versions of Skype.

In case you have it with 4.1 beta and toolbars versions 3.3, then please log an issue with all details in our public issue tracker.

Guide to issue reporting - https://developer.skype.com/SkypeGarage/ReportIssue

Thanks for your reply.



This is unacceptable. Please remember that this is not a kind of hi-tech video editing software that requires high resources. I'm not a programmer, but I understand the basics of programming. Using some system resources is different from using entire system resources.



The shortcut keys you have mentioned does exactly what I told in my previous post. Nothing more. What makes it difficult to make it the way I requested? Is there any known issues arises out of this?



Ok, this part I'm not clear! Though I think there should be an way for the remaining participants to start their video once all other parties have left!

This is a new request. Please seek the possibilities of showing the contact's current time when mouse over the contact icon. I know this can be archived by double clicking on the contact and expanding the contact details (So called Vista style - Do the things in lengthy way!).

Thank for your time!

Skype does real time video encoding and decoding and it consumer resources.

It also depends on the speed of your computer. Skype does not consume very high amount of modern (core2duo and equivalent) machines.



Noted down.

Hi Raul,

Thanks for your post.

Few more things!

1. Skype doesn't know whether the user is online or not anymore when I'm trying to call someone! ( It does know till v3.8 ) May be its time to teach this version.

2. Consider the old type of "icon" or a different "icon" when the user haven't shared the contact details. This is confusing and every time must mouse hover to find out!

3. Consider to bring the History back as previous version. (Please refer to my very first post)

4. Instead of displaying the "Call duration" at the beginning of the call, it would be nice to display along the "Call Ended" line. This would make much sense and not required to scroll up all the way to find when was the call started especially if both contacts shared so many messages.

Finally 5. I do not know whether this issue can be replicated, but anyway I just want to highlight. After few calls for 3-4 hours, when I shutdown, Skype seems to be not responding. I'm using Windows XP SP3 with up to date patches. Just to take note, previous version didn't have this issue.

Once again, thanks for your time in replying.

After a few tests i realized that:
In 4.1beta if i remove one a contact from a group conversation with 2 contacts plus me i can videocall with the remaining one without changing conversation, it's the same if one of the contacts leaves via "leave conversation" command.
In 4.0 i cannot do that

And in 4.1 i can turn on video with the only contact left in the call if the others hang up also remaining in the conversation, so Raul i think you are wrong.
In 4.0 i cannot do that

http://i40.tinypic.com/6hko7p.jpg
As you can see i am in a conversation with G and M but M has hanged up, now that the call is only between me and G i can turn on video

Here's another interesting screenshot
http://i42.tinypic.com/2hd4it4.jpg
I am running 4.0 and 4.1 at the same time.
4.0 calls 4.1 and then adds skype test call, then he closes the call with skypetestcall, he remains in call with 4.1 but remains in the group conversation with 4.1 and stc, now 4.1 call turn on video, and 4.0 cannot. same if the host is on 4.1

It is visible via presence. If you see user as offline and while calling he turns to be online then it is a presence bug. We can look into them if you have logfiles from both sides who had the problem.



Indeed you are right. I checked it over and you must be able to start video when only one person is left on a call.

Why don't Skype do some testing like this? http://oovoo.com/ It can support impressive 6 video conference!

Today I found that the time shown in the "Last Seen:" isn't accurate. It seems to be missing the timing. E.g. If I'm offline yesterday and when I come online today, it doesn't show the contacts that were online yesterday, instead it shows that the contacts were seen previous day only. Could this be an bug?

no, this feature is only telling you when your Skype client last SAW your contact online, not necessarily when the contact was actually online

your Skype client must be running and online to be able to check

the feature works as designed

Thanks for your reply Neil,

Yep, it seems to be its working as you told, "this feature is only telling you when your Skype client last SAW your contact online", rather I expect it to be working as per the server's log and not as per my client. Otherwise, it doesn't make logic. I could be offline for a week and when I return, I wouldn't know when the contact was online last time (It would just show a week before only).

This one I've tested and seems to be having problem. I would welcome if it could be changed the way I suggested.

Can anything be done for this Raul?

your client gets online status from your contacts directly (as per Skype's per-to-peer architecture)

when your client sees a given contact online, it makes note of it in it's own database on your system

it cannot check the online status of your contacts if it is not running, and it cannot update its own local database until such time as that contact is next seen online by your client (and no one else's)

this is not new behaviour for version 4.x

If this is the case, it doesn't make sense! I look at this feature from this point of view: If I'm out and a client waits for me, but left before I'm online, I should be aware when the client was last seen!

then leave your client running 24/7 like I do, because that is the only way it will work like you want

if you can't leave client running 24/7 then you only see when contacts came online when the client was running

you may not like it, but it makes perfect sense, and this is how it has worked always