It would seem that Skype has spilled the beans on a new “video-messaging” feature in its new Terms of Services notice. You don’t have to be the sort of person who goes through pages upon pages of legal mumbo jumbo because we’ve got you covered.
If you go over to Skype’s Terms of Services page and scroll all the way to the bottom, past all the other stuff we know you really don’t read, you will see the video messaging feature outlined. Apparently the feature is primarily designed to cater to premium members, those who have shelled out the $8.99/month to get special privileges. One of those privileges will now include the ability to send video messages across to other Skype contacts.
However, seeing as how a large chunk of Skype users are on the free subscription, Skype will not be leaving you hanging. While the premium members get unlimited video messages, free-subscribers will be able to send a limited number of video messages per month, but they can receive an unlimited number of such messages. These messages will expire in 90 days from receipt, unless the free user upgrades their account to a paid subscription or in the event that the message was sent by a Skype Premium member.
While video messages sound nice, and the subscription perks don’t seem to alienate the free members too much, the question obviously becomes, when will this feature roll out to the public? Here’s a screenshot from the Skype ToS page for your reading convenience, in case they decide to append the page and remove the video-messaging terms:
