There are many video conferencing tools around now, especially during the global pandemic, where many are taking to such tools to work from home and keep up with one another, but there’s no denying that Skype has been around the longest, bringing video chats to the limelight in 2005. Even though it’s not the most popular right now due to the rise in visibility of other tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, it’s no doubt one of the most established in the industry, more so as it’s from Microsoft, one of the leaders in the tech industry. The truth is that Skype is much more than a video conferencing tool; it’s also used for instant messaging, international mobile/landline calling, and SMS. For most of its uses, you’d need to connect with other people on Skype, and the only way to do this is via your Skype Live ID.
So what is this Skype Live ID, what can it be used for, and how can you find it? Let’s find out.
What is Skype Live ID?
Simply put, your Skype Live ID is your Skype username. Hence, you can think of it in the same context that you think of usernames on other apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A Skype ID is unique to each Skype account and identifies that account amongst the global collection of Skype accounts. Back when Skype was still a standalone company, users could specify their own usernames and customize it even after creating their account. However, things have changed since Skype got acquired by Microsoft; Skype Live IDs are now automatically generated by the system when signing up, and you can no longer change your live ID once it is created.
The system generates live IDs for Skype differently, based on what credentials you use to sign up. If you sign up with your email address, your Skype ID will be “live:” + the local-part of the email address (the part of the email address before the @ sign). For example, if your email address is “john_doe@gmail.com,” your Skype ID will be live:john_doe.
