Skype is a great communication tool for online chat, voice and video. One of the features I like most about Skype is the simple Skype Web status button that you can put on your webpage or Facebook page, and let everyone know whether you’re available for chat. Look in the footer of this page for an example.
However, lately I’ve noticed that my Skype connection appears to drop “offline” after a while. The Skype program on my desktop was happily set to ‘Online’, yet the Skype button on my website would change to ‘Offline’ after a while, and my contacts would tell me I was not online on their screens. Changing my status to ‘Away’, then back to ‘Online’ again fixes the problem for a while, until it disconnects / times out again.
I’m asuming this problem has something to do with firewalls, or my router, closing old connections that haven’t been updated in a while. So to combat this, I wrote the SkypeStatusFlick program, which uses the Skype API to update your status every 5 mins, and keep you online.
- If you’re on ‘Away’, every 5 minutes it will switch you to ‘Do Not Disturb’, then back to ‘Away’ instantly.
- If you’re on ‘Appear Offline / Invisible / Logged Out’, the program will not change your status at all.
- Otherwise, every 5 minutes you’ll get switched to ‘Away’, then instantly back to whatever your status is on.
Installation
You’ll need the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed to run SkypeStatusFlick. Then just extract the ZIP file and run SkypeStatusFlick.exe!
When you run the program for the first time, you’ll need to set Skype to allow access to SkypeStatusFlick.exe. Run SkypeStatusFlick, then open up your Skype window, and you should see a popup requesting access. Click Accept to allow SkypeStatusFlick to run. You only need to do this once, unless you reinstall or move SkypeStatusFlick.exe.
If you don’t allow access, SkypeStatusFlick will popup to tell you that it cannot access Skype, and you need to follow the directions above.
Create a shortcut to SkypeStatusFlick and put it in your StartUp folder to have it running in the background just like Skype. It doesn’t matter if Skype’s not running – the program will just wait until it is to start working.
Note: sometimes when Windows starts up the ‘Unhandled Error’ screen pops up, as Skype hasn’t fully loaded yet. Just hit ‘Continue’ and the program will continue to work in the background.
Tags: flick, online, skype, skypestatusflick, status
Wow, a hundred downloads, and not a single comment?
A quick note that I forgot to mention – you need to have your currently logged in Skype client set to ‘Allow my status to be shown from the web’ – you can set this in Options. Otherwise SkypeStatusFlick can’t help you, as Skype’s servers will return ‘Offline’ no matter what your status is.
I’d love if it people could post back their feedback – did it work for you? If not, what happened?