Skype for Web Brings Plugin-free Instant Messaging to Your Browser

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Ben Woods

Europe Editor

Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional (show all) Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional online poker player. You can contact him via Twitter or on Google+.

Skype has today announced a beta version of its instant messaging platform that allows you to use the service directly from your Web browser.

In order to use it, you won’t need to download any add-ons or plugins; it’s all done directly through Skype.com. The service is currently supporting the Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers.

While you can already make video and voice calls from your browser right now, it requires a plug-in. However, in the future this won’t be the case as Skype plans to support plugin-free calling by using the WebRTC standard.

Skype for Web isn’t available for all as yet though. The company said it was “making Skype for Web available to small number of existing and new users to begin with, and gradually rolling out worldwide in the coming months.”