Switching to Skype calls with NON Windows Phone devices?

[Nick Derrico]

I am curious of the behavior of switching to a Skype video call when I am talking to someone who is not using Windows Phone 8.1.

For example, if I call my wife, who has an Android phone with Skype installed, will I be able to initiate a Skype call with her from within a phone call (like calling WP to WP)? And if that's the case, how would her Android phone behave, would it just start a Skype call on her end and this disconnect the voice call?

I can understand if it's not possible, since it sounds pretty complicated, but if it behave as I described, this would be a compelling advantage over Hangouts (no support for this feature) and Facetime (support only for Apple devices)!

 

[xboxonthego3]

Yeah I do not expect this feature to work as smoothly with other phones that are not windows phone. I do believe it is possible to get it to work though. But I think in order for this to work they would need to program something in the Skype apps on different platforms to recognize this situation. Then the app would need to constantly run and the user would also need to be online. Sounds simple enough but I bet it would be complicated to develop.

 

[narv]

if I were to guess.. since you are able to link accounts in WP.. if you have the phone number of the person you are talking to linked to a Skype account, you will hit the Skype button and it will dial the linked Skype account. When the person picks up on the Skype end, since Skype and WP are linked it will hang up the phone call aspect and keep you in the Skype call.. This would allow you to then Skype the person on any device from the phone call, regardless of the device they are on..

Now, im not sure the case of it you don't have a linked Skype account or if the person isn't signed in to Skype, etc.. it may be greyed out? we'll have to see.

 

[Nick Derrico]

I could see this happening on Android, since you can set a default dialer application to handle your phone calls. MS could update Skype for Android so that it would become the dialer for regular calls, and as long as the user has Skype set as the default dialer, the integration would be [theoretically] seamless. Hopefully this is the direction they go!

Unfortunately the chances of this being seamless on iOS is slim to none, but there is hope for Android.

 

[Reebs Reebs]

Was anyone able to get this working when calling an non-WP device? I was hoping it works across all platforms.