Back in July, Facebook video calling powered by Skype was launched. Today's launch of
Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and
Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows allows you to conduct a Facebook-to-Facebook call from within Skype.
Initiating a Facebook-to-Facebook call from within Skype is easy; all you need to do is connect your Skype and Facebook accounts. Then, select a Facebook friend and hit the video call button in Skype- your friend simply picks up the call from Facebook. This new feature lets you maintain social connections with your Facebook friends and compliments previously released features such as being able to see when your Facebook friends are online, read their status updates and IM them all from Skype.
Besides this new Facebook feature, additional new features added to Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows including video rendering giving a smoother video experience for Mac users and group screen sharing for Windows users with a Premium subscription (group screen sharing is currently available for Mac users). Users who are chatting one-on-one will also be able to screen share with live video streaming.
Skype was bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion earlier this year. Microsoft owns a small stake in Facebook.