
The top image is a screenshot from Skype, where the image on the left was from a MacBook’s built-in iSight webcam and the image on the right was from an HD webcam. The more people who join the call, the smaller the video boxes get, but you can click on individual video boxes to enlarge them. The sound quality was better than the audio in Google Hangouts, but only slightly.

Sometimes, though, a video stream would freeze for about half a minute before resolving, a problem that grew worse the longer the conference continued. The video was on a par with that of Google Hangouts–generally accurate, with only a little latency between what a webcam was broadcasting and what everyone else could see on the screen. Video interface and quality: In general, Skype’s video and sound quality were very good in our tests.
#Hangouts for mac os x windows
The latest version is much slicker, with fewer windows that clutter your screen. Luckily, doing so is easy: Just go to Skype in the toolbar, click Check for updates, and follow the directions.
#Hangouts for mac os x update
Skype is a popular service, and if you’ve had it for a long time (as I have), you might need to update the software on your computer to get multiparty video chat to work (I had to update from version 2.8.0.866 to version 5.).

Skype Premium allows videoconferencing with up to 24 people. Once you’ve signed up, you can find friends via Facebook, Gmail, or Hotmail, or search by Skype screen name.
#Hangouts for mac os x download
If the Skype Premium member logs out of the group chat, the session ends for all participants.īoth the free and Premium versions of Skype require that you register with the company and download its software and chat sidebar, so it isn’t a great option if you need to organize a videoconference with a group quickly (unless you know that everyone in the group has Skype). Once a Premium user has set up the videoconference, he or she can add any Skype members to the video chat, whether those people use the free service or the Premium service. Setup: To start a multiperson video chat on Skype, you must have a Skype Premium membership, which costs $9 a month (or you can buy a Skype Premium day pass for $5). Regardless, members of the hangout can manually adjust the layout by clicking on any of the smaller video broadcasts to see that stream in the largest window instead. If two people speak at the same time, with nearly equal tone and volume, Google Hangouts still chooses one to be front and center in the chat. This arrangement, of course, assumes that every hangout will remain civil. Video interface and quality: While you’re in a hangout, whoever has the dominant voice will enter the large main video window, and all the other video broadcasts will appear in smaller video stream windows at the bottom. You can invite up to ten people to video chat.

You can invite more people by typing their Gmail addresses in the bar on the left side. When you’re ready, click the ‘Hang out’ button from the test page to go to the video chat room.

Once you start the hangout, everyone in those circles will be able to see that, and they can join your hangout if they want. Before you enter a hangout, Google allows you to preview what you’ll look and sound like to other members of the hangout.In the test page is a box that allows you to choose which “circles” (or groups of friends) to inform about your hangout.
