Partners and developers

Developer Zone and Jira will be unavailable due to planned maintenance work from 12:00 GMT tomorrow (2nd of October 2009). We expect it to be up and running again after two hours around 2 PM GMT.

Skype has always focused on delivering products that delight our users. For many years, the Skype Developer Program has offered a wide range of tools that allow third-party developers to create hardware and software that work with Skype. Many innovative applications have been developed and distributed over the years and we feel fortunate to have worked with some of the best developers anywhere.

Despite the incredible breadth of Extras developed for Skype, simply not enough people were using them to justify our continued support of the Extras programme. Unfortunately, effective today, we will shut down the Skype Extras programme.

Continue reading "The future of Skype Extras" »

The Hardware Certification Team is happy to announce the arrival of its latest lab to test and Certify routers - an important part of the overall Skype Experience. We are now inviting router manufacturers to submit their products for certification testing (fees will be waived for first 2 products submitted by each manufacturer). Test specifications can be found here. Our aim, through measuring basic performance and functionality, is to be able to recommend to our user base those routers that facilitate the best Skype experiences.

Some say Silence is the voice of complicity. I share the point that SDP as some of you knew has been a bit too quiet lately. But again, it does not mean at all we all left the Skype developer community or are working on projects that are not related to serve and support the developer community.

Actually we have improve and increase the team (I will let wolli commenting on that later I'm sure).

Many projects for developers are planned and on track to be delivered this year from our team (too early to share) but you know how much we like to share, so stay tune!

But for now, I thought I should thank someone most of you (Extra vendors) work with. Our dear Halina Mugame has decided to move on and actually to go and visit the other part of the Earth.

From Halina's words:

Mark Twain said: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

So I'm off to follow my dream and discover the world -  living the backpacker life for a year or two. I'm starting with Oz - I'll land there at the end of next week

I want to thank you all  for everything - being patient when I started or made some mistakes, supporting me to do my job better, discovering and creating new things - and the rest. You Thank you!

It's with incredibly heavy heart we will say goodbye to her but guess what! she found her perfect backfill with the recruitment of Kristi Pakler.

From Kristi's words:

I am fresh at Skype, joined just this week. So I try to keep up with Halinas good work and make DevZone better and better. Newsletter and Blog will also be my areas. It's all new and exciting for me and I look forward to work with you all

We are very happy to welcome Kristi in our team and she will be working with most of you and of course we wish all the best to Halina.

We will talk to you very soon again.

Guest writer: Jonathan Christensen, Skype's GM for Audio and Video

Today marks a significant moment in the journey of Skype. Some of you may be aware of the SILK speech codec which is included as part of Skype 4.0 for Windows - it's what enables super-wideband audio and optimizes call quality, even in low network bandwidth environments. It transforms sound quality for Skype calls, and if you haven't already tried 4.0, believe me: you should.

I'm speaking at eComm today, and have some very special news to bring our developer community - we're making the SILK speech codec available for a royalty free license by third-party software and hardware developers soon.

What does this mean for the future of audio on the web?

SILK is Skype's signature super wideband audio codec which achieves super wideband audio quality using 50% less network bandwidth than previously required. It is the outcome of a three year long development process in the Skype labs, which focused on four things:

• improving audio bandwidth going from 8 kHz to 12 kHz, meaning that a SILK conversation sounds like you are in the same room as the person you are speaking with
• providing real-time bandwidth scalability to deal with degraded network conditions
• balancing codec optimization between voice, music and background noise, each of which can have an impact on the overall user experience
• delivering a robust solution that delivers a more consistent audio experience, regardless of network conditions and an individual user's voice signature

Making SILK available opens the door to its adoption as the standard across a huge range of platforms, applications and devices by web developers and chip manufacturers, as well as consumer electronics and mobile device manufacturers. By offering it for free, we are removing one of the biggest hurdles to adoption of wideband audio: cost. By doing so, I hope we'll establish a new industry-wide standard in speech processing: clearer, richer, and warmer audio.
When can I get my hands on the code?

We are still working on the details but for more information about SILK, please visit our SILK website.

Cucku Backup
A 'collective backup' tool that enables users to backup their files into each others' computers, just like cuckoo lays eggs to different nests. User can send a request to friend to host one's files in his/her machine; when accepting it, friend can specify how many gigabytes s/he allocates to the other for the backup in one's PC. When both parties are online and running Skype and Cucku Backup, they can back up to and restore their files from each other's computer. Actually backup can be set automatic to some time; when the other party is offline, Cucku waits for him/her to come online and starts backing up then. Also, Cucku Backup can be used just locally, without copying files to any other computer.
For more information, see http://www.cucku.com

Officede for Skype
Officede for Skype is an operation management tool for offices, to manage employees' Skype usage. It consists of three different installers, one is installed to manager's PC, the second is installed to all the other PCs (clients) that manager wants to control. Manager can set different policies for all the clients and also group clients. Available policies are prohibiting importing, adding and sending contacts, also prohibiting Skype users search and file transfers, talking and chatting with unregistered users, changing Skype settings and SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls. Manager controls clients via TCP/IP. The third installer, Web Option, is optional, manager can specify a web server there and use it to control the network remotely, without being in LAN at all. However, for this case IIS must be set up first.
Officede for Skype is distributed on CD-ROM, so it is not downloadable from the Internet. For more information, see http://officede.net/en/

On Monday 10th November hiogi launched the first community-based Q&A solution for Skype.

"hiogi for Skype" is the world's first question and answer service that enables users to ask for advice by simply typing a question into their Skype chat window. Each question receives an accurate answer from the online community. The accuracy is ensured by a 6-eye-principle.

I tried it out myself. The registration is really very easy. And I typed my first question

[11/11/08 4:50:48 PM] Halina Mugame: ask what is skype?

[11/11/08 4:56:52 PM] hiogi:  Hey, check out the new answer....

Answer: Skype is a software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Additional features: instant messaging and asking hiogi

Cool! It didn't took long

But how exactly all the questions get answered, how big is community and what are the future plans for hiogi, lets find out from Björn Behrendt the CEO of hiogi?

Question get answered by the hiogi community, which is open for everyone. hiogis do not get paid for the answers, because they like to learn, help and take part in answer battles. It is fun. Try it.

hiogi is a technological market leader in providing free and accurate answers to mobile phone users. hiogi wants to become a convenient and much more personal source for information than search engines. Any technology on mobile phones is supported, e.g. hiogi for Skype mobile, iPhone app, mobile web, text messaging, twitter, email from PDAs or widgets...and much more to come.

The community has over 10.000 members and any question in English or German is being answered within minutes. The archive already contains over 30.000 questions for everyone to read - similar to wikipedia, but with a focus on short adhoc answers. For the time being we were mainly active in Germany (www.hiogi.de), and just made the move to go internationally with (www.hiogi.com) and the new hiogi for Skype solution.

We need a manager to help drive forward the Skype Developer Community within our new Skype Platform Team. This will be a really exciting role for the right candidate.

So, SDP is hiring....

Your challenge is to drive the Skype Community program that moves the new platform forward, compliments our platform product investments and ultimately delights our partner community and users. Your success will be measured by your ability to work closely with the product teams to develop a comprehensive developer marketing plan, and work with our marketing, product, and business development teams to evangelize Skype's tools, development environment, and unique value proposition to the development community.

You will be part of the newly formed Skype Platform team whose mission is to lead the adoption of Skype's Platform with developers and ISVs. The team is resourced and chartered to secure the future of the Skype Platform with developer audiences that span corporate and commercial developers, device developers, next generation developers in startups, students and social developers that writes plug-ins, widgets and mash-up applications today.

Key Responsibilities:

* Defining and articulating Skype's developer value proposition across multiple audiences including professional and non-professional developers, ISV, Online service providers, Operators and OEMs.
* Performing deep technical and business analysis of competing platforms and technologies and establishing best practices based his/her the previous experience and implementations at similar organizations.
* Integrating with business development and program management teams within the division and across the company to align product priorities, market needs and opportunities.
* Work closely with the regional and subsidiary teams, partner teams, and marketing teams across the company in order to speak with one voice to the developer community through existing and new channels. Collaborate with marketing communications team to broaden developer and rich application messaging.
* Develop & define specific outreach mechanisms (web, partner channels, etc.), to connect with developer segments and ISVs.
* Organize and drive developer outreach at events.

Required Skills and Experience:

* We are looking for a seasoned professional with a technological background. Formal education in engineering, mathematics, or physics is considered a valuable asset. Graduate level education in management or engineering is also desirable. Hands on experience in software development, particularly around open source or other development programs from third parties are also something we would be looking for. Previous experience managing a Community of Software Developers is fundamental.
* You will be responsible for managing a team of professionals that will support your programs and plans to create a significant and long lasting impact on the community of Skype Software developers. We are looking for a thought leader that can also motivate and raise the enthusiasm of all Skype developers. This is a position with lots of visibility outside of Skype and experience managing media and driving public events is critical.

To apply click here.

In August our star Developer is Don Kennedy AKA TheUberOverLord.

Don is one of Skype's veteran developers who has among other things helped many others to get on track with the Skype API. We have asked some questions from Don - go and find out!

Developer Spotlight is new permanent topic in Dev Zone starting May 2008.
The idea for this topic is to bring out our bright and hardworking SDP Developers and Partners to credit and let the world know about them

Our first developer under Spotlight was bopper. He is 20 year old student from Japan and his twitter4skype was Skype 2007 Mashup winner in Asia.

When I took the role in Skype Developer Program team one of my goals was to make Developer Zone look world class - in the look and feel, content and structure.

Today I can proudly announce Developer Zone version 3 is out there - hope you like it

Continue reading "Developer Zone version 3 is out there" »

More talented developers out there doing something really interesting Want to know more?

Meet Eion Robb from New Zealand - developer and a brand new Skype beta tester. Eion is writing an open-source cross-platform plugin for Pidgin and Adium (both multi-protocol instant messengers). It allows them to use Skype as another protocol, in C (and a little bit of Objective-C for OS X).

Here’s what came out of my chat with Eion:

Where did you get this idea and why did you start to develop this?

I had tried using the SkyLlian plugin for Trillian a few years back until I switched over to using Linux and OSX for work. Since then, I had been using Skype side-by-side with Pidgin and Adium and checking Google every couple of months to see if someone had written a plugin for either of them. In the end, with some incentive from the Adium community, I jumped in and started coding it myself.

Continue reading "Skype now on multi-protocol instant messengers" »

We have some good news to share with you

Brandon Holland with whom we had an interview this week has released Skype for AppleTV Beta.
You can go and download it from here.

There is no documentation or installation tutorials yet but I think we can give Brandon a little bit time for this.

Excellent work Brandon!

I got information from Antoine, who organised our first booth at MacWorld, that the Mac development activity around Skype is not a "would be nice to have" but a true reality at the moment (more to come).

From what I heard there is somewhere over Canada one 20 years old guy who is developing Skype plug-in for AppleTV. Let's take a little look at his video and have a little chat with him

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Continue reading "Skype on AppleTV - under development" »

As effective from today, new software certification requests will be tested against specs version 8.01, available at https://developer.skype.com/Certification/Software/TestSpecs.

Also, Happy New Year!

Guest post by Paul Amery:

Whoever said that should really get royalties!

A few changes are happening in SDP, and we wanted to let you know about them.

As part of Skype's focus on platformization, it makes sense for the Developer Program to build tighter relationships with the Core Tech and Engineering teams driving this work in Tallinn. With that in mind, myself, Lester Madden and Caitlin Wright will be leaving Skype before the end of 2007.

Continue reading "Change is constant" »

For the end of the year a new version of certification test specifications, 8.01, will be published at https://developer.skype.com/Certification/Software/TestSpecs. As of January 2, 2008, all new software certification requests must be made against version 8.01.

The main changes in the version 8.01 are the following:

* Remote Access (RAS) category is dropped, this category's products will be no longer certified;
* Product must support English;
* Category must be selected adequately, i.e. desktop sharing application in Sharing, call recorder in Productivity etc;
* Advertisements are allowed for free products;
* Clarified that product must be installable under limited account if operating system allows it;
* On uninstallation paid products can leave entries to save commission information;
* Quantitatively measurable requirements for voice quality;
* Product must support Unicode (previously it applied to Contacts list only in some categories);
* Product should support MSAA and keyboard navigating;
* Clarified error- and resource-usage requirements;
* In Generic category added requirements for managing video calls;
* In Generic category added requirement that it must be possible to set call forwarding to multiple numbers;
* In Sharing category added requirement that only authorized contacts can be invited;
* Productivity applications should have Getting Started Wizard and "Tip to know" on launch;
* Games should have "High scores" table.

As you can see, this time there are not many changes because the specs are quite mature already. Mostly there are clarifications for requirements that have been often misunderstood and some P3 suggestions. Remote Access category was dropped because we don’t have always a satisfactory level of visibility and control to ensure that all partners stick to our certification guidelines. Current release candidates with rationale of all changes are available at https://developer.skype.com/Certification/Software/TestSpecs/TestSpecs801

At Skype, we have a lot of great relationships with partners whose hardware or software helps enhance the Skype experience.

To date, we've certified about 200 devices and accessories, like the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, for example. Plus about 20 great pieces of software that extend the use of Skype.

Overall, we certify hardware and software in eight categories.

Why do we do this? After all, there are thousands of products out there that work with Skype. Or kind-of-sort-of work with Skype. That's why. It's this last situation that the Skype Certification program is meant to help avoid.

The Skype Certified logo is our way of giving a product an enthusiastic two thumbs up. (Once our engineers have given the product a thorough check-up, that is). As a result, the Skype Certified label is a nifty shortcut for consumers who have better things to do than to set up, say, a world-class audio testing facility to see whether her new internet phone is worth buying.

Right now, we're updating our certification policies and guidelines. As part of this effort, the Skype Developer Program (SDP) no longer accepts submissions to certify applications in the mobile and remote-access category.

With the growing number of certified products out there, we don't always have a satisfactory level of visibility and control to ensure that all partners stick to our certification guidelines.

We think we owe this move to Skype users who've come to trust the Skype Certified label and would be less than pleased with a substandard product carrying it.

It was June 2007 when the Skype Developer Program started looking towards to the following year and began working on the 2008 API roadmap. We decided that instead of only having a round table discussion with our engineering team in Tallinn, we would collect information through different channels to ensure we were listening to all third party requests. One of the most prominent suggestions was about mashups.

We decided to test the waters by introducing a mashup competition around the Skype public API. Within a week of our first meeting programmableweb.com and Skype Journal were supporting and sponsoring the event: Skype’s first Mashup competition from 1st of July until the 31st of August 2007 with a trip to Prague for the winner.

As soon as we announced the competition, we knew it was the right way to progress. Feedback we had received from the developer community, bloggers, analysts and journalists said that by opening up the API to mashups, it gave developers a chance to build even further with Skype. Paul Amery and our team took that point into account and added the concept of "Plug-Out" to the 2008 Roadmap and used the event to launch the new category and development channel around the API.

I'd like to invite you before you continue reading this story to subscribe to our newsletter that way you will be updated with the latest news about Mashups. (Here the last Newsletter)

Continue reading "Mashups development continues" »

San Jose, Calif., September 28, 2007, Skype has just named the U.S. Winner of Mashup Cup.

As part of its vision to extend its public platform to third-party developers, SDP has honored JiWire, Inc., for its winning entry in the 2007 Skype Mashup Competition. The JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype™ was named the winner of the competition in the U.S. region last night during Skype’s Developer Program Open House.

JiWire has created a dynamic mobile Internet experience for Skype users through a unique plug-in for finding and connecting to wireless networks. Considering the many strong entries in the Skype Mashup Competition, we’re delighted that the JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype has been chosen for this award

To what Paul answered:

The mashup judges felt this was the best submission from the U.S. region as it is stable, looks great and, perhaps most important, is useful. Slick, smooth and useful – this is a good benchmark for other developers to consider.

Continue reading "Skype Continues Evolution of Developer Program" »

Arkadiusz Wahlig, the developer of Skype4Py wrapper for Skype API has released version 0.9.28.3 of the Python library.

Continue reading "Skype4Py v. 0.9.28.3 released" »

As "summer" is ending in North Earth it has been already two months since we launched the Mashup competition.

I want here to revive those who are still developing to submit their application before the 31st of August (please visit the Mashup wiki page) and even more to thank all those who have submitted so far and are already under testing by our jury.

For those who would like to test also those mashup please read the entire post!

Continue reading "D-1 Mashup competition is ending!" »

In July there have been certified the following new software products:

Vapps High Speed Conferencing

An application that enables users to have conference calls with up to 500 participants. There is a +99 number for every registered user. To start a conference, user must send one's +99 number to the other participants, either other Skype users or regular telephone users, and the others must dial in. During a call participants can ask the number of all participants, mute and unmute themselves and change their volume level by DTMF tones. Host can also mute and unmute all the other participants and lock and unlock the conference, both by DTMF tones and from application window. Technically the conference is hosted not from host's PC but from server, therefore it doesn't apply much pressure on local computer.
Vapps High Speed Conferencing needs Microsoft .NET installed.

CrazyTalk

CrazyTalk is not a new product, first time it was certified in the beginning of 2006 already but their latest version contains new features like media and Desktop sharing. It means that if previously user had options to show the other party either one's actual video picture or animation, then now one can show also movies, photos, documents, system settings or just some areas from the Desktop. On media and Desktop sharing user can set resolution and frame rate, to find suitable combination of movement speed and picture quality.

In July there have been certified the following new software products:

Vapps High Speed Conferencing

An application that enables users to have conference calls with up to 500 participants. There is a +99 number for every registered user. To start a conference, user must send one's +99 number to the other participants, either other Skype users or regular telephone users, and the others must dial in. During a call participants can ask the number of all participants, mute and unmute themselves and change their volume level by DTMF tones. Host can also mute and unmute all the other participants and lock and unlock the conference, both by DTMF tones and from application window. Technically the conference is hosted not from host's PC but from server, therefore it doesn't apply much pressure on local computer.
Vapps High Speed Conferencing needs Microsoft .NET installed.

CrazyTalk

CrazyTalk is not a new product, first time it was certified in the beginning of 2006 already but their latest version contains new features like media and Desktop sharing. It means that if previously user had options to show the other party either one's actual video picture or animation, then now one can show also movies, photos, documents, system settings or just some areas from the Desktop. On media and Desktop sharing user can set resolution and frame rate, to find suitable combination of movement speed and picture quality.

Sometimes it is good to meet face to face people from the community and partners.

As we had last week our first Geek event, great success, thanks to the 40 attendees (pictures and video are coming soon), this time we invite those who will be in this city which doesn't sleep to come and meet us.

We will be staying in Manhattan from Saturday 19th until Monday 21st of May. So for those who are already working with us, drop me a chat or call me. Now, I'm also looking forward meeting new faces too

Anyway, it will be a great opportunity to share more with you and review your concepts and roadmaps during these three days.

See you in New York.

Contact: Antoine

This week, Skype is going to launch a really interesting pilot within Extras which will promote a movie from Sony Pictures called Perfect Stranger.
We have teamed up with Pablo and his team from veroSee to deliver a unique campaign based on a puzzle that reveals the various film characters.

If this campaign pilot proves successful we may look at running others. The concept, will be to work with a limited number of clients to run promotions using the extra products.

Continue reading "A perfect stranger, do you want to be the next one?" »

At Skype our main focus is providing our users with the best communications experience possible when using Skype.

Our developer community and the businesses responsible for creating ideas have helped Skype work towards continued innovation and delivering this promise to our users.

To develop further services for the Developers, Software partners and Business Development communities, Skype would like to understand a bit more about you and how we can best help to facilitate your requests with both our technical teams and business development teams moving forward.

Please take some time to answer our survey. Fill out it!

Your feedback and input are welcomed. Antoine at Skype

In the improvement of our developer zone, we have reorganized the Download section which is the most popular page (3000 users a day on average).
So from now, you will find in on page how to get started with the resource, the documentation associated, its support and a Changelog.

Also I would mention to those interested in developing great Extras that you will use the Publishing Studio (available under the Download page) and we have document all the steps to Get Started with Extras.

Last and least, we are going to send the February newsletter to feel free to subscribe if you've never done it yet

To the happy few, Ants

The most significant finding from the usability on website browsing is that users are usually much more oriented toward functionality. Even a website that users visit daily seems to feel like a tool: users want to get in and get out as quickly as possible rather than “connect” with the site. Nielsen Norman Group - expert in design human-centered products and services

Users tend to glance at websites when they need to accomplish something or to find the answer to a specific question. That is the reason why with more than 2550 visitors per day, the DevZone has from now a more concentrate contents, cut into a better and more logical structure:

* left-hand navigation in three steps
* Newsletter subscription
* News and Bugs sections

Continue reading "DevZone 2.5 - new look and feel" »

This month sees the culmination of a very special project for the SDP with the release of an open-source, cross-platform, Java API for Skype.

The gurus behind this adventure are Koji Hisano (UBION INC.) and Bart Lamot, and it has been a privilege watching them at work. Koji and Bart were working on separate Java APIs for Skype which are Skype API for Java and JSA but joined forces and shared happily to build a powerful Java platform for Skype.

Skype4Java is a wrapper library of Skype API for Java developers. Using Skype4Java enables developers to make plug-ins on multiple platforms and use good IDEs, libraries, and frameworks. This project supports many functions of the Skype API. They started implementation of Skype 2.5 and 2.6 functions.

Skype has promoted this project from the start as the official API and we are looking forward to helping you work with this API. You can also read more in our last October newsletter.

To get started, go to the project Wiki page in the DevZone .