Microsoft’s new 50-person group video chat feature for Skype exits beta

Starting today, you can use Skype with up to 50 video chat participants, as part of a new update to the stable version of the app. Today’s update cements Skype as the clear group video chat winner — at least in terms of the raw number of people you can have in a single call — since FaceTime only supports up to 32 participants. Previously, Skype only supported up to 25 callers at once, though the new 50-person feature has been in testing for beta users since early March.

In order to have a better handle on so many participants, Microsoft has revamped group notifications a bit. Before the update, every single person would receive a ring when a call started. Now, however, the Skype app will generally ping you with a system notification instead for large calls, and you can specify which participants are allowed to actually ring you. However, Skype will still let a call organizer ring everyone if there’s fewer than 25 people in the group.

Large group calling is available to Skype users who update to the latest version of the app starting today.