We already brought you part one of our list of 15 things you probably did not know about Skype, and now we’re back with part two! Check out eight more fascinating facts about the long-distance communication service that you definitely (probably) did not know below. You might be surprised by what you find out!
Number Eight: A Total of Three Billion Minutes Are Spent Using the Service Every Day. As of December 2015, Skype users spend a collective three billion minutes using the service every day.
Number Seven: Most of Its Development Team Aren’t Based at Its Headquarters. The service’s headquarters are located in Luxembourg; however, nearly half of Skype’s employees work out of Estonia, and most of its development team are there as well.
Number Six: Before it Was Skype, It Was Skyper. The name of the service came from the term “Sky peer-to-peer,” which was first shortened to “Skyper” before the name it currently bears. It was ultimately changed to Skype because there was an issue with available domain names.
Number Five: Up to 25 People at a Time Can Conference on the Service for Free. While many services charge for allowing 25 person-large conferences to take place, on Skype, it’s free. Up to 25 people at a time can be on a conference call, video chat, or screen sharing experience for free.
Number Four: It’s Collaborating with Disney Muppets. It’s true! The service is collaborating with the BBC, Universal Studios, and Disney Muppets to develop its “Mojis,” which are similar to emojis but are specific to the service.
Number Three: It Has Its Own Mobile Phone. The brand is called 3 Skypephone, and it’s an actual phone that users can take with them purely for the purpose of making calls with the service.
Number Two: It’s Not Entirely Safe to Use. There have been several security-related controversies with the service, and not all of them have been solved. For example, a glitch was discovered in 2010 that allowed hackers to secretly track user’s IP addresses, and it still hadn’t been resolved as of 2015.
Number One: It’s Being Used as a Language Teaching Tool. Some teachers choose to implement the service in their classrooms to connect students with others across the world. Their students can learn new cultures and even new languages this way. We hope you enjoyed our list of 15 things you didn’t know about Skype!