Is it possible to get Skype video calls working in Chrome OS?
3 Answers
Although Microsoft's license is still relevant, Google have created a "packaged apps" API which can let developers make offline apps. If you were able to get the SkypeKit service to install/run on Chrome OS, you could then make a JavaScript API to interface with it and we'd have ourselves a base to start developing a Chrome OS Skype client.
If anyone knows a good place to discuss all the finer details, please let me know.
This isn't much of an answer, but unfortunately no.
I looked into using their SkypeKit API -- a newly released API for third-party developers to add Skype support to non-Skype hardware and software products. In its license agreement is a clause that explicitly states that you (developers) are not allowed to use their SkypeKit binaries in a web browser context.
Until Skype releases these barriers, or maybe develops a Native Client plugin (à la Netflix) you're stuck using video with GTalk.
As a follow-up answer to my earlier post about Skype itself being unavailable, I recently came across WebRTC. This is an HTML5 framework designed specifically to solve your problem in a web framework.
A demo of WebRTC is in action at https://apprtc.appspot.com/. This worked great on my Samsung Series 5 Chromebook running Chrome OS 26.
If you want a more Skype-like experience, you can try vLine. This site utilizes the WebRTC framework and provides a JavaScript API to build something like a company-wide video-calling webapp.
For WebRTC to work, your communication partner needs use a WebRTC compatibile browser. Currently, only supported by Chrome 24 and Firefox 20.