[2] Users cannot control how long their chat histories are stored on Skype's servers but can configure that option individually for every their device.
The feature is seen as controversial and often useless because people have found ways to create custom quotes.
If one of these limits is exceeded, any additional calls are billed at regular rates and connection fees if the user has Skype Credit.
[13] Skype offers a feature allowing users to set the caller ID for outgoing calls to telephone numbers.
Since most regular home and business telephones cannot receive text messages, this feature is only available to owners of mobile phones.
Callers in London could then make a local call to reach that user (who answers on Skype in San Francisco).
Skype offers numbers in Australia, Chile,[14] Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Republic of Korea, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand,[14] Poland, Romania,[14] South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
In Russia some companies, including SIP operators, provide direct numbers, redirecting calls to Skype.
However, the Premium product was removed in the summer of 2014 when group video calls and screen sharing were made free.
This service allows callers to leave voicemail messages for Skype users who are indisposed.
Skype 3.0.0 on iOS allows iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users to call each other, as well as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
In the United States, China, and Taiwan, Skype uses a "generic, pre-defined number" as the sender ID.
In other countries, the message can be set to appear coming from a verified mobile number, allowing recipients to reply, or else show the first 11 characters of the Skype username.
However, as of March 2015, Skype users cannot receive SMS, despite a continuing series of requests and complaints.
This replaced an earlier feature Skype Zones Beta which provided subscription-based access at wireless hotspots operated by Boingo and The Cloud.
[21][22] In February 2017, Microsoft announced plans to discontinue its Skype Wi-Fi service globally.
By default, the option to log conversations is disabled, but can be enabled in the tools / privacy panel.
On Windows, Skype can be run directly from a USB flash drive without being installed on the host computer.
[27][28] Skype supports group text chat with an interface similar to IRC with up to 150 people.
The Macintosh version used to use the same message view style format as Adium, though with a different filename extension.
Message view styles made for Adium could be installed for Skype, and they did not even need to be renamed.
attracts a number of callers who want to practice a foreign language (usually English), in addition to the expected scammers and spammers.
Skypecasts did not support chat windows to share text information (such as URL) with participants.
It allowed users to call lines that charged a per minute rate usually for advice on a particular topic.