To whom it may concern,
I was recently on Skype chatting away to multiple people and having some video chats/calls on and off when I realised that Skype could do with some very simple yet effective new features.
Firstly I'd like to suggest "Tabbed Chatting". What is tabbed chatting you may ask? Well when you talk to multiple people it is really hard to keep track of who you are talking to if you have over 20 people online. Let's say you are talking to seven people at once, it is really hard having to search through your list to find the ones you are actively messaging. Now I know there is a recent tab which shows who you have messaged today and that it pings when a contact replies. This is good but let's say you have talked to 14 people today and now are only talking to 7 you'd still have to search through the list to find the ones you are talking to. Just like the ping thing, say all 7 people you are talking to ping you at once, it'd be annoying and hard to keep track of.
Hence, why I have suggested "Tab Chatting".
Tab Chatting Features:
« It will work similar to tabs in browsers
« It will open a contact in a tab when you are actively talking to more than one contact at a time
« It will give you a right click option that says "Open Contact in Tab"
« Tabs will be white except when you have an unread message.
« Tabs will be movable, for the sake of re-ordering the contacts you are talking to
Tab Design:
Tabs will be white in colour and have a small avatar in the left hand corner with the contacts name in middle of the tab. When a message appears the tab will flash or turn a different colour to symbolise a new message has been received. Also the number of new messages will appear in the right hand corner of the tab until it gets to 99 where it will say 99+.
Other info:
«Tabs will be movable, so that when you click on them and hold down the mouse button you can drag them. This will allow you to change the order of the Tabs so that if you have a long list of Tabs open you can put the Tabs you want to talk to the most at the front and the others at the back.
« Tabs will be displayed just above the person name and where it says close when you already are talking to someone. There will be a left and right arrow to scroll through tabs if you have too many open.
« If you right click a tab you will be given the option to close the tab or shrink it. If you shrink a tab all you will be able to see is the contacts avatar and if they message you tab will just change colour. There will be no name or numbers. This is helpful if you have many contact tabs open at once.
How this will benefit the Skype Community:
« It will make it easier and quicker for people to actively find the contacts they want to talk to without having to search through all there contacts.
__________________________________________________
Secondly, I'd like to suggest a New Status. What is this new status you may ask? Well when you are calling people or doing a video chat how annoying is it to here beeps and get messages from other people.
Hence why I have suggested an "In Call" status.
In Call Status Features:
« Will Mute everyone on your list except the person you are talking to
« Will stop other people from calling you
Status Design:
« The picture will be blue in colour and have a phone as the symbol
Other Information:
« This status will automatically be activated when in a Video Call or Skype Call
« You can change your status to any other after the call has commenced and back again
« This status mutes everyone except the person you are talking to and stops them from being able to call you but they can still message you. Just you won't hear them.
« You can still add other people to the call from inside the call interface
How this will benefit the Skype Community:
« It will benefit the Skype Community as it will allow other people to have peaceful Skype Calls/Video Calls without the interruption of other contacts.
__________________________________________________
Thirdly I'd like to suggest an addition to Skype Profiles. What addition you may ask? How many of you, use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube type social networking websites? I'd say a fair few. Wouldn't it be good to be able to add such Social Network sites to your Skype Profile?
Well this suggestion will allow you to. There should be a section on a persons Skype Profile that says:
Facebook:
Twitter:
YouTube:
+
Next to the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube you would put the url. This will allow people who view your profile to see the Social Network sites you have and easily get to them. Also if the plus button is clicked people can type in the name and url of the site.
Privacy settings for these:
The privacy settings will be Public or Contacts Only depending on what audience you want to share them with and it is optional to fill these out.
__________________________________________________
Fourthly, I'd like to suggest Volume Controls within Video/Skype calls. At the moment when you make a call it turns down your other audio playing and makes the Skype calls audio louder. Then the only way to turn the Skype Call audio down is by muting it.
Hence why there should be an Audio Slider in Skype/Video Calls .
It will work by:
There will be a volume picture similar to the one in windows that will be on the call bar. It will allow you to slide it. Sliding it far right will be Max volume and far left will be mute. Now you can still easily mute the call by click on the icon itself without having to slide it.
This will also work in group calls with multiple people. You can use this new audio slider to turn down selected contacts within the call. For example, say I want Bob to be louder then Jim. I could turn Bob up and Jim down.
__________________________________________________
Well that is all the features I have to suggest for the time being and I hope they are good/haven't already been suggested,
Ben 
PS: Thank-you for taking the time to read these and telling me your thoughts and ideas on them. I appreciate it.
The Skype Community
- Skype Community
- ➝
- English
- ➝
- Your Community
- ➝
- The Skype Lounge
- ➝
- Feature Requests: Tabbed Chats, New Status, Social...
