Compatibility - Skype & Yahoo

[PinkPanther006]

Hi all - just wondering if SKype and Yahoo would be compatible with each other. I know that with Trillian you can talk to people who have YM, AIM, MSN and ICQ. So my questions is - if you have YM or Skype can you do a pc to pc call? Or do you both have to have the same program?

I have YM and my sister has Skype. I'm in the US and she's in Holland, so we're looking for something compatible. I don't want to dump YM cause a lot of my friends use it.

What are the diffs between Skype and YM? Is Skype better or vice-versa? I'm interested in knowing what you all think....

[PolarBearNPR]

Hi PinkPanther and to the BBB. I have both YIM and Skype and have used pc-to-pc voice on both. I think Skype's voice quality is better, but not significantly so; and it seems to take up more memory. So, depending on your sister's or your computer, that could be an issue. The great thing about this is you don't have to have just one messenger! You can create an account in Skype and have her as your only buddy there so you can talk; or she can get a YIM account and have you as a buddy so you can talk. As for me, of those two . . . I like Skyping best. It seems cleaner, easier to use, more set up for the voice thing. But YIM has lots of options I just don't need to use them. When I'm talking, I'm pretty much just talking.

If you don't want to get another messenger, you can do the pc-to-phone for not much money (seems to me calling to many landlines around the world are like 1-2 cents/min). I have used YIM for this and it's alright . . . better than not talking, but for awhile there I was getting cut off every 15 minutes or so Hopefully that bug has been fixed! Awww shucks - just checked and Holland isn't in the YIM pc-to-phone network.

There are other pc-to-phone messengers, Gizmo (again no Holland connection ) MSN does a nice pc-to-pc thing, but that would mean another messenger for you. Hmmm . . . don't know if that helped, and I am very surprised that Holland isn't in the lists of pc-to-phone availability. Perhaps there is something there that would allow her to call you along these same lines.

Good luck to you, and let us know what works for you.

See you around!

[Jeff]

I run both, but primarily use Skype for my PC-to-phone calls. PC-to-PC calls are free (as is the Skype software), so if you really want to minimize cost, I suggest installing Skype to talk to your sister. You don't need to give up Yahoo! Messenger. You can still use that for everything else.

If you want to use Skype to make PC-to-phone calls, there is a cost involved. You would need to purchase a block of Skype-Out credits (available in 10 euro increments). The rates to Europe are generally excellent. To call from the U.S. to a Netherlands land line it's $0.021/minute.

Here's a complete list of Skype-Out rates.