Meet Microsoft’s Skype Meetings: A Complimentary Video Conferencing Tool Designed for Small Businesses

Today, Microsoft breaks new ground in the realm of digital connectivity with the launch of a highly innovative tool named Skype Meetings. This product release signals Microsoft’s strategic move to contend with competitive platforms such as Google Hangouts.

For small businesses in the digital age, effective communication is no longer limited to face-to-face interactions or phone calls. Skype Meetings, with its real-time audio and high-definition video conferencing capabilities, allows companies to maintain seamless, versatile communication channels.

However, Skype Meetings stands out from the crowd as it presents impressive collaboration features such as the ability to share screens and content during meetings. This tool is essentially crafted with the needs of small businesses in mind, particularly those lacking Office 365 subscriptions. As a more pared-down version of Skype for Business, which is included in the Office 365 suite, Skype Meetings still delivers major value for smaller enterprises.

Any organization equipped with a business email address can gain access to the revolutionary features of Skype Meetings, provided that the company does not already employ Office 365. Meeting enthusiasts can sign up for this free and valuable resource at Microsoft’s Skype Meetings webpage.


Upon registration, you can immediately start organizing meetings with upto ten participants for the first two months (60 days). Subsequently, the number decreases to a maximum of three participants, mirroring Skype’s personal calls limit. The prerequisites for this service are relatively simple and standard. Any device equipped with a working camera, microphone, and speakers can facilitate Skype Meetings.

In addition to Skype’s regular features, here’s what you’ll receive upon signing up:

– PowerPoint collaboration, showcasing innovative ways to share content.
– A personalized URL to engage from any device.
– Video calls with upto ten participants – a significant selling point for the service.

On the other hand, should you be an Office 365 user, you can anticipate the following benefits:

– Access to Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook for meeting arrangements, and more.
– The ability to send instant messages anytime.
– Capability to record meetings for future analysis.
– Meetings with an extravagant limit of upto 250 participants.

These additional benefits of Office 365 make it evident that this new tool might part of Microsoft’s strategy to promote its cloud services. Microsoft originally acquired Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion on May 10, 2011.

Armed with the newly-released Skype Meetings, Microsoft continues its journey to reshape the landscape for small businesses’ communication efforts, emphasizing the power of online collaboration.