Technews website thenextweb talked to Phillip Snalune, Skype’s General Manager of Consumer Product Marketing, to learn more, and he specifically listed apps for the following platforms: Windows modern (read: Metro app), Windows Phone, Android, and iOS. Unfortunately, he refused to share exact timing details. Snalune also wouldn’t disclose how much revenue the feature has generated or how many users actively accessed it. Skype started charging for GVC in January 2011; to use the feature, at least one person on the call needed to have a Premium account ($4.99 for a day pass or $8.99 per month). As for why today was chosen to flip the free switch, Snalune merely said Skype wanted to offer “the best communication experience for our users” and that there was “a lot of demand” for group chat and group audio calling, so GVC was the next logical step. When pressed about whether Google Hangouts, which has offered free group video calling for a few years now, had anything to do with it, Snalune just said the decision was user-driven and the “appetite” for the feature was growing. Skype is already known for 1:1 video calling, and now the Microsoft-owned company has finally realized groups matter as well. Whether it will become king for group video calling remains to be seen, but that is certainly a likely possibility.
