Skype has been hammered in the past for entering into an exclusive agreement with Verizon. The lack of an official Skype client on Android infuriated and frustrated many of its dedicated users. In response to the criticism, Skype had promised to deliver a “direct to consumer app to the Android marketplace”. Now, after a long wait, they have finally delivered.
Skype for Android is now available worldwide (excluding China and Japan) through the Market. The app supports free Skype-to-Skype calls, cheap Skype-to-phone calls, free instant messaging, group conferences and more. While the app is capable of working over both WiFi and 3G, in the US, calls are supported only over WiFi.
Head over to skype.com/m or use the attached QR code to download the app. Although the app should run on all devices with Android 2.1 (or newer), it has been officially tested only on HTC and Motorola devices. The official blog post acknowledges some problems with the Samsung Galaxy S, and has promised to fix them soon.
