Last year Microsoft said it was building a Web client for Skype, and it has been operating in a very limited beta since then. Today, the beta got opened up to every Skype user in the US and UK, with the rest of the world being added in coming weeks.
Microsoft's longterm plan is to use an API called ORTC (Object Real-Time Communications) that is currently being developed by Microsoft, Google, and others. However, this specification is not complete, with only Microsoft's Edge browser likely to support it any time soon. To fill this gap, Skype for Web currently depends on a range of browser plugins and extensions.
In our quick testing, these plugins earn their beta branding. Everything worked as it should in Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 8.1, with both voice and video looking and sounding as good as they ever do in the full Skype client and video neatly integrated into the browser window. It wasn't quite perfect; there was no true full-screen mode (going full screen just filled the browser window, not the screen), and there appears to be no configurability at all. If you have multiple cameras or audio devices, it seems that Skype will pick one all by itself.
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