At any given time, up to 50 million people are using Skype simultaneously, a rather staggering statistic that continues to grow each year. Skype is used by businesses as a fast and easy way to communicate with colleagues during the working day – it has replaced intercom systems in most offices – and is extremely useful for conducting meetings and conferences between branches of companies and/or clients in various locations around the world.
Using Skype you can basically send messages or make calls and video calls to other Skype users through an internet connection. It avoids having to pay for calls if you use an existing data connection or Wi-Fi.
It quickly gained popularity for being able to avoid costly international call costs and of course for being able to see the other parties via a web cam. Premium users get extras such a call conference facilities but for most people the service is free.
Up until very recently, it was impossible to be able to monitor any Skype calls or messages made from a cell phone or tablet. This was a problem for some people trying to monitor their children or employees. Traditional spy software programs could monitor all regular texts and calls made on cell phones but if someone used Skype to make calls or send message you had no way to see what was going on.