How to Install Skype for Linux Latest on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 Desktop

By now you probably know a thing or two about Microsoft Skype… It’s a free app that allows users to communicate via instant messages, voice and video call – all for free, no matter what device they use Skype on….

Skype is available on phones, tablets, PCs, Macs and Linux and is used to make free Skype-to-Skype calls and text to stay in touch with friends and family….

A Linux version of Skype was recently updated.. and this adds some new features including, enhanced user interface, cloud-based group chat experience, PulseAudio support and file transfer improvements across multiple devices and bunch of other fixes….

To install or upgrade Skype, use the steps below

Step 1: Uninstall all Previous Versions

To install or upgrade, make sure you don’t already have previous versions installed. To get rid of Skype on Ubuntu, run the commands below

sudo apt-get purge skypeforlinux && sudo apt-get autoremove

Step 2: Installing / Upgrade Skype

Now that Skype is uninstalled, run the commands below to install a required package that Skype needs.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https -y

Then run the commands below to add Skype repository to Ubuntu. If curl isn’t installed, you may want to run sudo apt-get install curl before running the commands below or you may get an error the curl is not installed.

sudo apt-get install curl
curl https://repo.skype.com/data/SKYPE-GPG-KEY | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list

Finally, run the commands below to install Skype

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install skypeforlinux -y

That should prompt you to type and confirm your password before the installation can continue… When you’re done, Skype should be installed and ready to use… To launch it, go to the Activities Overview and search Skype and launch it.

Option #2: Install Skype via Snap

If the option above didn’t work for you… you can also install Skype via Snap package management…. This might be the quickest way to install Skype…

Snaps are applications packaged with all their dependencies to run on all popular Linux distributions from a single build. They update automatically and roll back gracefully…

sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install skype --classic

That’s it!

Published by Richard Zayzay

Hi, I'm Richard. In my spare time, I research topics that are interesting and worthwhile for users and students who want to try something new. I, too, am a student and my focus here is to help other students and new users get started with managing Ubuntu Linux, Windows, Content Management Systems (CMS) and others. I try to do my best explaining the topics and detailing the instructions so that anyone can understand. These tutorials may not work in all situations and for all users. However, if you run into trouble, please ask your questions below and I or someone from the community may help you resolve. Thanks for reading and hope you come back. ~Richard View all posts by Richard Zayzay

10 Replies to “How to Install Skype for Linux Latest on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 Desktop”

Julián May says:

09/25/2018 at 9:41 AM

Thanks for this post, it helped me a lot.

Reply
Aravind Krishnan says:

11/11/2018 at 4:25 PM

Thanks for the installation post.

Reply
China Mike says:

12/06/2018 at 5:19 PM

This was my result: sudo apt-get install skypeforlinux -y

Everything went smooth, even up to the last point of “sudo apt-get install skypeforlinux -y” so…

*Running Ubuntu 16.04–I read from some posts elsewhere that Skype was discontinued in Canocal repositories???

Reply
Honore says:

12/27/2018 at 8:37 PM

Thank you for the commands. Snap method works well

Reply
Pradeep says:

01/07/2019 at 3:11 AM

tthanks

Reply
Dharmin Bakaraniya says:

02/03/2019 at 11:47 AM

I think it should be snapd instead of snap while install snap.

Reply
1. !robot says:
  
  02/03/2019 at 11:53 AM
  
  Thanks, updated
  
  Reply
B says:

02/26/2019 at 12:09 PM

Hi there!
Thanks for the instructions. However, my microphone is not recognized by the latest version of Skype 8.34.0.78. I use Ubuntu 16.04. I already tried installing and uninstalling Skype. That did not work either. The new Skype got rid of the Tools Options feature so there’s nothing to adjust there. How do I get Skype to recognize my microphone so that I can start making calls. Please give very detailed instructions! Thanks, B

Reply
Alessia Cara says:

05/02/2019 at 11:46 PM

Thanks for the post, it helped me.

Reply
Ignacio says:

03/22/2020 at 4:49 AM

Good day,
thanks.

Reply

Step 1: Uninstall all Previous Versions

Step 2: Installing / Upgrade Skype

Option #2: Install Skype via Snap

Published by Richard Zayzay

10 Replies to “How to Install Skype for Linux Latest on Ubuntu 16.04 | 18.04 Desktop”

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