Multiple Skype accounts on Linux Windows and Mac

multiple skype accounts on windows linux and mac osx
Standard

How to run multiple Skype accounts on Linux, Windows and Mac

Here I describe how to run have multiple instances of skype running on a single computer for your multiple skype accounts. Wooho why have one when you can have many? Everyone usually has more than one emails same goes for skype. Maybe one for work and another personal. Who knows? Whatever you need be, here’s how you can do it on your OS of choice.

Required

  • Latest version of skype
  • your OS of choice (Linux, Windows or Mac OSX)

Linux

For linux, the following method has been tested on Ubuntu. On linux there are couple of ways to do this. Press [bash inline=”true”]Alt + F2[/bash] from your keyboard, and then use following command [bash inline=”true”]skype –secondary[/bash] to start another instance of skype.

You could do something simillar by launching a terminal and typing the following command [bash inline=”true”]skype –secondary &[/bash]

Windows

For windows, the following method has been tested on Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Create a shortcut for the skype executable on your desktop. The path to the executable should look something as follows [bash inline=”true”]C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe[/bash]. Right click on the shortcut that you just created on the desktop and change the target value to the following [bash inline=”true”]C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe /secondary[/bash]. Appy! Boom! You can now launch multiple instances of skype.

Just a note; on windows (especially windows 8), there are some other options of installing a thirdparty software to manage your multiple skype instances. I haven’t tried it and I wouldn’t recommend it either.

Mac OSX

For Mac OSX, the following method has been tested on OSX Yeosemite. Make sure you have one instance of skype running already. Then, open terminal and run the following command [bash inline=”true”]sudo /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS/Skype /secondary[/bash]. (The location to your skype app might vary)

So there you have it. Multiple Skype accounts on Linux, Windows and Mac. Enjoy.