LifeSize vs Skype
March 11, 2025 | Author: Adam Levine
2★
No other HD video conferencing solution makes the conference room experience so easy and accessible. Our solution connects our incredible Icon video systems to our remarkably simple-to-use Lifesize Cloud service—putting everyone one call away from pulling up a chair at the meeting.
28★
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chats over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and videoconferencing. Skype alternative for enterprise is called Skype for Business.
LifeSize and Skype, at first glance, seem like two slightly different names for the same general idea: talking to people without being in the same room, which is frankly a marvelous achievement when you consider how much effort humanity has spent avoiding eye contact with strangers on public transport. Both allow you to see and hear others through the magic of the internet, share your screen when words fail you and work on an impressive range of devices, including the very same ones you use to avoid phone calls. They exist for both work and play, depending on how much fun your meetings are and require only a stable internet connection—something, incidentally, that still remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of modern life.
LifeSize, however, takes itself very seriously, as if video conferencing were an art form perfected by an elite society of well-dressed professionals. It emerged in 2003 in the United States, a country famous for taking even the most mundane office activities and turning them into something requiring expensive specialized equipment. LifeSize offers dedicated hardware for those who believe that pressing a single button to start a meeting is still too casual and it prides itself on high-quality 4K video resolution, because if you're going to see your boss at 9 a.m., you might as well see every pore in ultra-high definition. Security and administrative controls are also a big deal, presumably to prevent people from accidentally broadcasting their cat walking across their keyboard to an audience of important clients.
Skype, on the other hand, is far more relaxed about the whole thing, having been created in 2003 in Estonia—an event that, much like its early users, many people have since forgotten. It began as a way for people to talk for free and quickly became a global phenomenon, proving that humans will go to great lengths to avoid international call charges. It was later absorbed into the ever-expanding Microsoft empire, which proceeded to merge it with everything that wasn’t nailed down. Unlike LifeSize, Skype doesn’t require fancy hardware, though it does sometimes require patience when your call suddenly turns into an avant-garde pixelated art piece. It also lets you message people in the middle of a call, just in case you suddenly remember something too embarrassing to say out loud.
See also: Top 10 Videoconferencing software
LifeSize, however, takes itself very seriously, as if video conferencing were an art form perfected by an elite society of well-dressed professionals. It emerged in 2003 in the United States, a country famous for taking even the most mundane office activities and turning them into something requiring expensive specialized equipment. LifeSize offers dedicated hardware for those who believe that pressing a single button to start a meeting is still too casual and it prides itself on high-quality 4K video resolution, because if you're going to see your boss at 9 a.m., you might as well see every pore in ultra-high definition. Security and administrative controls are also a big deal, presumably to prevent people from accidentally broadcasting their cat walking across their keyboard to an audience of important clients.
Skype, on the other hand, is far more relaxed about the whole thing, having been created in 2003 in Estonia—an event that, much like its early users, many people have since forgotten. It began as a way for people to talk for free and quickly became a global phenomenon, proving that humans will go to great lengths to avoid international call charges. It was later absorbed into the ever-expanding Microsoft empire, which proceeded to merge it with everything that wasn’t nailed down. Unlike LifeSize, Skype doesn’t require fancy hardware, though it does sometimes require patience when your call suddenly turns into an avant-garde pixelated art piece. It also lets you message people in the middle of a call, just in case you suddenly remember something too embarrassing to say out loud.
See also: Top 10 Videoconferencing software