Use Plugin Free Skype With Microsoft Edge Web Browser
Microsoft has recently declared that Skype now works without any other plugin in Edge thanks to the integrated ORTC media engine embedded into the app.
“All Skype one-to-one and group voice and video calls to and from Microsoft Edge browsers are plugin free. All Skype one-to-one calls from Microsoft Edge to the latest versions of Skype for Windows and Skype for Mac are plug-in free” Microsoft explains.
It's for quite some been a goal of Microsoft's to make Skype plugin free on the web, and by the end of the month, the Redmond outfit will accomplish that objective when using Skype on its Edge browser. Without any downloads or plugins to install, Skype users will have access to real-time voice, video, and the group calling through Skype for Web, Office Online, Outlook.com, and OneDrive.
"Plugin-free calling in Edge is the first step towards an interoperable, standards-based calling experience in Skype and Skype for Business so that Skype users on any modern platform can communicate without the need for plugins or downloads.," Microsoft Edge Program Manager Kyle Pflug announced in a blog post.
The plugin free experience that's occurred is powered by the Object RTC media engine, an API that Microsoft just embedded in Edge. ORTC allows a wide variety of features that Skype uses, everything from simple conversation to scalable multiparty video conferences.
"Today, we're excited to announce that Skype for Web, Outlook.com, Office Online and OneDrive now support real-time, plugin-free voice, video and group video calling on Microsoft's Edge browser, using the ORTC media engine that was recently embedded in Microsoft Edge", says The Skype Team.
The team further says, "today's launch is exciting news and is the first step towards fulfilling the commitment we've made to support WebRTC in Skype and Skype for Business. But we want to bring seamless calling to everyone, not just people using Microsoft Edge. To make this a reality, we will continue to work on enabling audio and video interoperability with Chrome and Firefox browsers, once they both support the H.264 video codec".
Microsoft is using the WebRTC standard for this plugin-free Skype, but a user can’t use it in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, although Microsoft declares they will extend support to them when they support the H.264 video codec.
“The H.264 format is historically the preferred option in the RTC industry,” Microsoft said in a statement. “H.264 support has been widely adopted across hardware platforms, and has broad hardware offload support, for improved performance and video quality. We’re excited to see more modern browsers now supporting the H.264 video format in WebRTC implementations—Firefox has shipped support for H.264/AVC, and initial H.264 support is now available in Chrome Canary "
“Our focus is on basic 1:1 communications, and we will initially support a single H.264/AVC stream within PeerConnection,” it continues. “Advanced functionality like multi-stream support, provisional answers, or the WebRTC 1.0 object model, are currently out of scope for our implementation. We look forward to sharing updates on this implementation as our prototyping continues.”
What this means is that Skype will soon work on non-Windows platforms too with a supported browser? It’s a surely understood thing that Skype for Linux is pretty much outdated, and there have been several complaints from Linux users in the last few months, so this update will provide them a chance to continue using the VoIP platform and all the latest features.