Skype Communication Saftey Tips
Are you sure you are logged out of skype? Read below to find out more.
For digital natives and skype users that use skype daily with work here are some chat commands that can ensure that your skype is safely logged out of devices or computers you are not using.
We live in a virtual world and like many people I use Lync, Skype, Facebook chat whatever to communicate. To do many of my meetings for work and things related to work, I use skype. If you use skype for your online meetings then you might have noticed that Microsoft gives you the ability to log into as many computers and devices as you want. This can be problematic if you forget and remain logged into on a remote device or computer.
I learned about this when my 12 year old son had an incident where someone used his skype account in a rather unpleasant way. After our incident, I decided to change all our passwords on various cloud driven services and another other tools we use.
One thing I found very irritating about SKYPE is you can be online on multiple devices on the same skype account without realizing it. It would be great if Microsoft would introduce a log out on other device(s) functionality when logging into skype and populate a message: "Do you want to log out of skype on other devies?"
What I did find was that skype had a wide arrange of chat commands and I will list some of them at the end of this post and highlight two of them here.
In our case, I think my son left his skype logged in at a friends house and this is one of his friends taking advantage of this opportunity. I will showcase two commands that I found very useful.
Introducing: /showplaces For Skype versions 6 or greater just type /showplaces in your any skype chat and you get a list of the open "online endpoints" which is pretty awesome when you have teenagers running around the house on multiple devices.
http://kitchell.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/image1.jpg
As you can see above, I am online on my PC and my Iphone. Please note the long string of letters and numbers in the {brackets}, I mention them below.
Introducing: /remotelogout http://kitchell.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/image2.jpg
For Skype versions 6 or greater just typing in /remotelogout ends all remote sessions. I am sitting with my iphone when I push enter and skype logs me out and when I type /showplaces again it reveals my 1 open online endpoint.
http://kitchell.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/image3.jpg
These 2 commands clear up uncertainty and give a skype user more power to ensure their account safety. Some important points:
- It is only skype account to skype account This means if you are logged in on Skype desktop via your skype username and on any other device with your skype account it will remote log you out on the other skype account logins and only show online session via the /showplaces skype to skype.
- Doesn’t work Skype Account to Windows Account On the mobile version, at least IOS(I have no android) it offers the choice of logging in with a Skype Name or a Microsoft Account. If you log in with your microsoft account on mobile and your skype account on your PC the commands do not work.
- Unique IDs: In the example above it shows the long set of letters and numbers in the {brackets} called a GUID.
- Works on Mobile(very surprised) The first example is my mobile logged in via the microsoft account and it doesn’t recognize that I am online via my PC desktop skype account.
http://kitchell.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/image5.jpg
The second example is my mobile logged in via the skype account and it does find my PC as you can listed in the chat.
http://kitchell.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/image6.jpg
I have shaded out parts of mine because Skype has given each of my devices a unique ID. I had at first thought it was a unique session ID but it is an ID that is bound to the device.
As a conclusion, please be safe on the digital highway and be sure to logged out of skype and check your "endpoints" from time to times as I have found in my busy schedule I forget.
Also I have tried to gather Skype commands off of various webpages and the commands are listed on the Original Post. I have not tried them all and I maybe missing some so please comment on further commands.
Original Post
Read More on Digital Doughnut