Skype Adds New Video Voicemail Feature For When Your Contacts Are Away

And “voicemail” evolved. Microsoft announced on its Skype blog that the video chat service now offers a Skype Video Messaging feature that allows you to leave a video voicemail when one of your contacts is away.

Skype Video Messaging is free, and you can leave a message by tapping or clicking the Video Message button and recording your message (up to three minutes in length). You can preview your recording (and if need be, delete and re-record it) before you hit the send button. When that contact next signs into Skype, she’ll receive the message.

Skype Video Messaging

Skype Video Messaging is available on any platform running Skype, including Windows PCs, Macs, iOS devices, Android phones and tablets, and BlackBerry.

This is a terrific feature to add to Skype, and it’s high time, too. In addition to increasing the value of Skype, Microsoft has wisely developed a feature that should boost the total usage of the service and improve user engagement.

Skype Video Messaging

Further, being able to leave a video voicemail message is only one way to use the new feature; it’s also a great way to send short videos to friends and family--which means that Skype has just become a de facto video sharing service.

Skype Video Messaging

The blog post and associated FAQs make no mention of whether or not you can send a video to multiple users at once, although one bit casually mentions that Skype Video Messaging is a great way to share “with a friend on Skype”, which could indicate that this is a one-to-one messaging capability. For now.