Skype, a free voice-and-video chatting platform, has recently gained much importance in the life of many as it can connect you globally without charging a single dollar. The app is easily available on the Windows App Store, Google Play Store, iTunes or Apple Store, and many other web app stores. Designed and developed by Microsoft, Skype serves as an excellent platform for registered users to connect to their friends, family, and relatives for free. The developers of this amazing chat platform have made a web-based version of Skype for users who wish to chat with friends on Chromebook. But the browser-based version doesn’t have official voice or video support yet, which is quite disappointing. If you urgently want to connect with someone for voice-and-video chatting on your Chromebooks, then try Google Hangouts as it works well across Chromebooks.

If you don’t want to access Google Hangouts or doesn’t have an account, then read the article below to learn how to use Skype on your Chromebooks.

1. Text Chat on Outlook.com

Skype is an application that supports voice-and-video-calling, but many people just use it for text chatting. The app has recently absorbed the old Windows Live Messenger (or MSN Messenger) to bring more accuracy in text chatting. Therefore, a lot of users prefer to use it instead of wasting time and resources on installing resource hungry or tiring apps.

Once connected with Skype, you can easily send text messages to all your contacts using Outlook.com. All you need to do is to log in to your account, access the built-in chat, and let it connect to Skype. Outlook.com’s chat feature is nothing but a web version of Skype.

• To start a Skype text chat on Chromebook, visit Outlook.com and sign in using your registered email ID and password.
• Click on the messaging icon located at the top-right corner of your inbox.
• Click the ‘Sign in or join’ link next to Skype and set up Skype on Outlook.com.

2. Install the Skype Android App

Since Chrome OS is a Google product, the company working on an Android runtime for Chrome. As a result, users will be provided with a compatibility layer, which is specially designed to allow users to run any Android app directly on Chrome OS. You can then run all the Android apps, which exist in the Google Play Store, on Chromebooks.

Many of you will be interested to know that Skype has an Android app, and it can be easily installed on Chrome OS. Users having an Android device can install Skype for Android and the ARChon Packager app, which will package up the Skype Android app into a Chrome app. Once converted, share the generated app or upload it to Google Drive to make available on your Chromebook’s Files app.

Follow these steps to use this method:

• Install the Archon runtime on your Chromebook
• Extract the Skype app and install it by opening the Extensions page in Chrome
• Activate ‘Developer mode’ and using the ‘Load unpacked extension’ button
• Or you can simply do the same by tweaking the Chrome app. Download an official Skype APK file and package it with Archon.

3. Use Skype for Linux in Developer Mode

This is the most complicated method out of the three, and it will use the officially supported version of Skype for the Linux desktop. Microsoft’s official Linux desktop version of Skype can’t be installed directly in Chrome OS, but you can set Chromebook into Developer Mode and install a standard Linux environment. Don’t panic, this doesn’t mean that you’ll then own a Chromebook running on Linux, rather you can easily switch back and forth with a keyboard shortcut.

With Linux installed on your Chromebook, you can easily install the Skype package from Microsoft. By doing this, you can enjoy a Skype desktop application running on your Chromebook. The only limitation in this method is that it will only work on Intel-based Chromebooks, and will not support any of the ARM-based ones.

Conclusion

If you really want to take advantage of the Skype application on your recently purchased Chromebook, then adopt one of the above-mentioned methods. The Chromebook will allow you to set up Skype for commencing text chats via Outlook.com, and you can pick up your Smartphone to make a Skype voice or video call. You can also install the Skype Android app for catering all your personal, business, and entertainment requirements. But it is recommended not to experiment with desktop Linux in a Chromebook’s developer mode, if you aren’t aware of what actually you are doing. It is always better to know that the Skype client for Linux otherwise it will not deliver the same experience as the app provides on a Windows and Mac system.

About the Author: Hi! I am Polly Quinton, a prolific blog writer and keen author of articles related to online laptop support and solution for issues related to computers and mobile devices. Being associated with the reputed best pc tuneup service provider Qresolve, I have resolved thousands of tech issues for our customers from worldwide. laptop support My areas of interest are PC security, endpoint security system, router support etc. You can follow me for my useful compaq laptop support articles on Ezine and other article-oriented websites.