Skype Arrives With Some Limitations

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/03/skype_for_iphone_yes_its_here.html' target='_blank'>http://share.skype.com/sites/en/200...s_its_here.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><img height="385" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//at/auto/1238500956.usr18053.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="259" /></p><p>Well, the day has come.&nbsp; Shortly after hell froze over, Skype's app for the iPhone was released.&nbsp; It's actually pretty cool and the voice quality is on par with what you'd get from the desktop version of skype.&nbsp; The screen grab above is from an active call I made after installing it this morning, and as you can see it bears more than a passing resemblance to the iPhone's built-in phone app.&nbsp; Not too shabby, right?</p><p>There are limitations, though.&nbsp; You can't initiate a conference call from the iPhone, you can't make calls over anything but WiFi (thanks AT&amp;T, really), and you can't send files or use the integrated SMS like the desktop client offers (again, thanks AT&amp;T).&nbsp; The biggest limitation, of course, is that it won't run in the background.&nbsp; As Ptyork from the forums pointed out, without that, your chances of realtime call notification are basically nill unless the push notification system is super fast.&nbsp; Guess that one we'll just have to wait and see on.</p><p>Overall, it's worth a download if you use Skype regularly.&nbsp; Just the amount of outgoing calls I make make this one worth having in the ole toolkt.</p><p>(One slight clarification; yesterday when I used the term rumor, I meant the release date not the actual app!)</p>

[Janak Parekh]

Re push notification: if Skype wanted to, their servers could provide a certain number of fake rings to the caller while the callee's phone launched Skype to accept the call. I think it's actually quite doable. Whether they do remains to be seen.

--janak

[jdmichal]

Wouldn't that require something running in the background to know that you're getting a call? Or is this assuming that the push notification system can activate a particular program on the phone without any user interaction?

The first is impossible. The second is a somewhat scary proposition that I can't see Apple allowing without completely blowing the cover on this "we value security" line.

[Janak Parekh]

Wouldn't that require something running in the background to know that you're getting a call? Or is this assuming that the push notification system can activate a particular program on the phone without any user interaction? Push notifications can offer a button that launches the app. So, Skype's servers could talk to Apple's, which would trigger a notification on the iPhone, with a button that starts up the app, contacts Skype, and accepts the call.

It's nowhere near ideal, but it is theoretically doable.

--janak

[ptyork]

Push notifications can offer a button that launches the app. So, Skype's servers could talk to Apple's, which would trigger a notification on the iPhone, with a button that starts up the app, contacts Skype, and accepts the call.

You're 100% correct that it is theoretically doable. Lot's of ???'s though:

1) How quickly can the push notifications actually make it to the phone.
2) How quickly can a phone in standby connect to wifi, connect/login to skype, and receive the call.
3) This is a major revamp of the server-side logic for Skype. Is it feasible at all for them to take this on?
4) Is it desirable to have the caller wait for the iPhone? How long? Say you have a desktop that stays logged in and an iPhone. Do you want the caller to wait for a few rings before it rings to your desktop (which you may or may not be at)? Once it rings at the desktop, is it no longer possible to get it on the iPhone? Yes, it's conceivable that the system could ring immediately on the desktop and also allow the iPhone version to log in and immediately accept an incoming call, but again, this would probably take the server-side rewrite from major to MAJOR.

I'm guessing it won't happen. I hope it does, but I'm just not thinking that it will. Especially since a truly useful version would likely be nixed by AT&T.

[Janak Parekh]

You're 100% correct that it is theoretically doable. Lot's of ???'s though: Indeed, and I don't think it'll happen either. Theoretical speculations are fun. ;)

That said, since push notifications are designed for practical IM latency (or so they claim), I would like to think the performance of the actual "paging" of the phone should be decent.

--janak