For those who cannot dial 911 through a landline or mobile phone in an emergency, the newly introduced computer-side dialing function of Skype in the United States can just solve their urgent needs. While certain limitations remain, the software can at least share its location with emergency services if necessary.
Before this week’s introduction of PC-side 911 dialing for Skype in the US, the Emergency Calling service was already live in markets including Australia, Denmark, Finland and the UK.
Before opting into location sharing, users will see a clear “Notification and Disclosure” alert reminding them that the service doesn’t work the same as traditional phone calls.
In addition, Skype encourages users not to make emergency calls through Skype outside their homes, because the line may be redirected to other places.
What’s more, in the event of a regional Skype service experiencing power outages or internet outages, traditional phone lines remain the best option for alerting.
Finally, Microsoft has also improved the voicemail feature for Skype 8.80, extending the duration from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
And users can choose a light or dark mode during a call, support sending custom reactions (reactions), and zoom in or out when sharing the screen.