One of the most interesting new features in Skype 2.5 is Shared Groups. If you just want to get up and running with it, there's a helpful [Shared Groups starting guide](http://www.skype.com/help/guides/sharedgroups.html) available. This guide looks at some details about why shared groups are interesting and how you can benefit from them.
### What good are groups in Skype, anyway?
First, let's look at regular Skype contact groups. You can have any number of contact groups and contacts in them. You can do conference calls or group text chats with groups with just two clicks (right-click on group and select the action). You can also have some contacts ungrouped (not in any group) if you wish.
### So what do Shared Groups do?
Shared Groups function exactly like regular unshared contact groups. The difference is that whereas a "usual" contact group is only in your own contact list, a Shared Group is in the contacts of everyone who belongs to that group. This is extremely handy for maintaining a family or a workgroup as a contact group in Skype.
In your contact list, shared and regular groups look and work the same -- the only difference being the green "shared" icon on the right.
If someone adds members to the group, this info automatically goes to other group members who immediately see the new member. The new member gets the whole group into his contacts right away and doesn't need to hunt down all the contacts individually. This can be very useful in a workgroup setting, where a new team member can get immediately up to speed about who's who.
Group memberships often overlap -- one Skype Name in your contact list can belong in several groups and it all works fine. If your colleague is also your friend, you can have him in both "Colleagues" and "Friends", where other members are completely different.
If someone renames a shared group, the new name is propagated to all other members immediately. While it is possible to rename contacts locally so that others wouldn't see it -- and you can call your boss "Mickey Mouse" and he doesn't see it -- shared groups have the same name in everyone's contacts who are sharing this group. So you may want to think twice about what name to use so that everyone understands it the same way.
### How do I leave a shared group or remove members?
The only way to remove someone from shared group is to have that person remove the shared group from his contacts. Others then see a notice that the person has left the group. If this is not possible for some reason, it's convenient to just create a new shared group with the "correct" members, and abandon the old one.
### Final bits'n'pieces
Shared Groups are initially supported only in Skype for Windows 2.5 and above. Other versions will follow. If you share a group to someone using an older version of Skype, or someone using another platform that does not support Shared Groups, the person just won't have indication about the Shared Group, but she will still be a member of the group. And if you start a chat or conference call to the group, she will know of it.
Comments
When will we have multivideo calls?
Is it only a problem of speedness of telephone lines?
piuite | Sunday, May 7
Hi Jaanus,
You probably know I’m a big fan of the idea behind the Skype Groups and more so the Skype Shared Groups.
I’ve started development of such a Skype API application more then half a year ago: http://www.kishkish.com/book/. Since then Skype added their built in groups as well.
So I have a good idea of some of the future features that would be added to this new Skype Shared Groups.
One of the main disadvantages of the current implementation is the lack of ADMINISTRATION functionality. All contacts in the group are equal while most groups would like to have (need to have) some sort of management.
Like you mentioned the group renaming that can be changed by anyone. Or the fact that anyone can add any other friend to the group and give him access to all members. Your ‘control’ suggestion of abandon the old group and creating a new open only to remove a certain member can be very annoying if it’s done every few weeks.
So the question is when will Skype introduce the administration capabilities for the new Skype Shared Groups?
When you’re thinking of a Skype Business version you definitely need the ability to manage these groups. Just like you manage the email accounts in the company or the phone extensions in your office PBX.
- Your sys-admin creates you an email account in the office email server, and he also removes it once you leave the company. In the Skype Shared Groups, the group admin will need to be able to remove anyone that is no longer relevant in such a shared group group.
- Your admin assigns you a phone extension or your email address and give you some level of control.
- Your email is known to every one else that is connected to the server (at least when using an MS Exchange server). The Skype Shared Group should be able to force itself into the companies’ users Skype Client.
Once you look deeper in you understand that these administration capabilities function will most likely need a few levels of security, like in any modern online forum.
KishKish Book in the Skype Extra Gallery: http://share.skype.com/directory/kishkish_book_-_contact_list_organizer/view/
Regards,
Alex Rosenbaum
alex_rosenbaum | Wednesday, May 10
Hi,
I totally agree to Alex. And its not just interesting for application in business, but also in private I think.
Regards,
Martin
martinhaus | Tuesday, May 16
Hi Jaanus
After I read your blog about shared groups I got really excited. I had to deploy 32 users at once for a trade company. So I was already setting up skype groups because we would have heave skypeout usage. The problem is that for 32 new accounts I did not want to add all contacts and then have to authorize, what would require that I would authorize 32x32 = 1024 authorizations.
After reading your blog I came up with the idea... i will have one user with all contacts in (so I requested 32 times and after loggin in 31 times (different) accounts and authorized this first account I created the shared group on this first account, this way I would have all contacts on the left 31 accounts.
This just did not happen. Did I get something wrong or it is a malfunction?
Tks
urso67 | Tuesday, Aug 1
I'd like to see some feedback, i.e. when someone is added to a group they need to accept (at least, that is my understanding).
People who have been added but have not yet accepted full group membership should be displayed differently when viewing the group (e.g. in italics).
As it stands, if a contact is using MacOSX or linux then they never even see the invite!
murkee | Thursday, Oct 12
Yes, we now have adminitrable chats in 3.0, next we would like to have an admin role in a shared group also.
gatestone | Monday, Nov 13
Help.. Skype Groups.
I am a Stamp Collector. How would I "find" other Skype users that are ALSO stamp Collectors??? Skype.com should set up some type of conference or forum for peope with the same interest to find each other. There are millions of Stamp Clooectors in the world but hardly any of them use Skype. There are millions of Skype Users, but hardly any of them Collect Stamps. Can you see my point? Since this is MY IDEA,, maybe now I'll be a millionaire. If you want a loan, or further info on my idea...
Email Me,, kp@gate.net
Thanks.
Peter C.
Stuart, FL U.S.A.
peter_kp203 | Sunday, May 27