Skype 5 for Mac blocks all webcam access by Flash. Skype says it is "by design"

Thought I would pass on a word of warning about the recently released Skype 5 for Mac. Once installed, if Skype 5 is running (even in background), it will block Flash from being able to access your webcam. This breaks quite a few popular web applications. Unfortunately users will think the problem is caused by Flash, when it is actually caused by Skype.<p>Examples of sites and applications broken by Skype 5.<p>* <a href="http://www.dailybooth.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailybooth.com</a> - core feature of the site<p>* <a href="http://www.facebook.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com</a> - webcam record and "take a photo" feature<p>* <a href="http://www.picnik.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.picnik.com</a> - image editors that have import from webcam<p>* <a href="http://www.webcamsnapper.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.webcamsnapper.com</a> - webcam photo widget used by brizzly, dailybooth, many other sites. (disclosure: my company built this app)<p>* adobe connect, dimdim, etc - online meeting apps<p>Skype has been aware of this issue since the release of the beta in November and yet they have not fixed it before the general release. According to their issue tracker they say this new behavior is "by design".<p><a href="https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721" rel="nofollow">https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721</a><p>In the old Skype (2.8) this was not a problem, so something has changed. If indeed this is not a bug and is "by design" then it is a very worrying move. Imagine for a moment things were reversed. Say for instance a new release of Flash stopped all video calls working in iChat or Skype. People would be outraged, Gruber would have a heart attack.<p>Just to be 100% clear, Skype doesn't need to be in a video call for it to block webcam access by Flash. It simply needs to be running. The only fix is to shut down Skype then reload your browser. After this the webcam will start working again in Flash. The only long term fix is to uninstall Skype 5 and install an older version.<p>More discussion of the issue in Skype forum: <a href="http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=782411" rel="nofollow">http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=782411</a>

I have no idea what Skype was thinking with version 5 of their client. It is atrocious.<p>There is so much white space, if your Instant Messenger client takes up more screen space than a web browser, you're probably doing something wrong.<p>Download version 2.8 - <a href="http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php" rel="nofollow">http://mac.oldapps.com/skype.php</a>

As the developer of a web app that uses the webcam through flash, I am already mentally preparing myself for the flood of support requests that inevitably will come.<p>Maybe Skype should become classified as malware. This is only the latest in a series of huge bugs because Skype tries to integrate with every application.

"Beom Soo Park added a comment - 31/Jan/11 2:21 PM I have to rectify the term I used before, this issue found to be a "bug", not "by design", We are working on the issue and will be fixed in future updates. Sorry for making confusions.<p>Thank you"

1. Three months ago, a Skype customer reports a terrible, hostile, unreasonable problem with the new client via official Skype bug tracker<p>2. Company rep asks, “Can you provide us your feedback? You can send feedback through Skype Menu -&#62; Provide Skype Feedback … Thanks” and provides not a glimpse of insight into why the customer is being asked to submit this complaint elsewhere instead of the rep just, you know, doing his job and getting the message wherever it needs to be, himself.<p>3. Customer: WTF, didn’t I just do that here?<p>4. Support person: “Currently, this [issue] is by design.”<p>5. Other users express outrage, and this is posted to HN today<p>6. Today, rep “rectifies” previous statement and says it is a “bug, not by design.”<p>(Can we get something to the HN front page about Skype for iPhone’s terrible behavior of loading all chat messages in chronological order, taking literally half an hour before the app is usable?)

"To ſay it is ‘by deſign’ is not an acceptable anſwer. Your proprietary, inflexible, ſecret piece of ſoftware takes control of ðe uſer’s hardware wiþout his conſent, and ¿you do not even offer a reaſon for ðat?"<p>I'm trying really hard to figure out what localization this guy's keyboard is set to.

For once, i am rather happy with skype devs <i>not putting too much effort</i> in the linux version. Hope it stays that way...

Previous Skype extension for Firefox was also causing trouble for many websites. The plugin is common enough to cause a lot of grief.

Does this mean that Skype can take snapshots through your web cam whenever it's running? There was a US high school that installed software that did that and got raked over the coals for it.

Interestingly, FaceTime and iChat don't seem to have any trouble using the webcam while Skype is running. Since they're Apple apps, they may get priority, however.

As a side note: the new Android Skype release is getting panned on the market because of horrible UI features (puts an icon in the notification area that cannot be removed) and other bugs. I finally removed skype from my droid, even though I do occasionally get calls from it.

Just an update to say Skype have responded saying they will fix the bug in an upcoming release. Hopefully we won't have to wait long.

Skype are now calling it a "bug".

According to Skype's reply ( see Beom Soo Park's new post on <a href="https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721" rel="nofollow">https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCM-721</a> ) they are "working on the issue and will be fixed in future updates."

I have been fighting with this since installing the Beta. Has caused me to stop using skype, and only turning it on as a last resort. Would be curious if anyone has a link for 2.8, as it (unsurprisingly) isn't on their site anymore.

I recall having this problem on Windows as well. I have a Windows laptop (XP with Turion X2 processor) I keep on hand in case I ever need Windows that I hauled out of the closet the other day as a Skype friend wanted to play a game (I´m on Linux). I installed Skype and was greeted with a behemoth that this computer couldn´t handle. Incidently, I was surfing in the background while I ended up just chatting due to poor video quality and came across a website that took your Flash webcam and did effects with it and the video would not load. I rebooted (sans Skype being open now) and it worked.

We released a hotfix yesterday, fixing the Flash bug and a couple of other significant bugs. <a href="http://blogs.skype.com/garage/2011/02/skype_50_for_mac_hotfix.html" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.skype.com/garage/2011/02/skype_50_for_mac_hotfi...</a><p>Please upgrade to 5.0.0.7994: <a href="http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-macosx" rel="nofollow">http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-macosx</a>

Skype does not care enough about UX in general. It's no wonder that, when faced with design questions like "Should we allow Flash to use the camera while Skype is running?", they take the wrong decision.<p>If you couple this with the UI of Skype for Mac 5, you have plenty of reasons to remain with version 2.8.

Flash video camera is a disaster, especially on Mac. After spending months working around its flaws, I've vowed never again to use Flash video recorder in my web apps again.<p>Currently it's completely broken in Chrome on Mac (even broke non facebook.com).<p>And I bet Adobe wonders what has provoked the wrath of Steve Jobs.

skype for mac has always been a pain but it seems they're trying really hard to make it even worse. &#60;irony&#62;besides of course coverflow for profile pictures, which is a huge improvement in usability.&#60;/irony&#62;

<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1759181" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1759181</a>

This version was obviously built for people who only use one application at a time.

I am getting a 503 error from the link. Any mirrors?