Ever since the initial release of the Skype™ client in mid 2003, people from all around the world have used it to initiate high-quality voice and text conversations, send and receive files, and stay in touch with one another. The visually impaired community, likewise, has used Skype since then to facilitate equal communication with each other and their sighted counterparts.

However, as the service has grown, so too has the program. For years, screen reader users have kept up with Skype's ever-morphing interface either with custom patches, scripts, or apps. While largely successful, such utilities must be constantly maintained as any new version of Skype can, and often will, cause previously working scripts or apps to stop functioning properly.

In mid 2011, Skype announced its SkypeKit developer program. This service allows program developers to directly access nearly all Skype services without the additional need of traversing its user interface. Developers, therefore, can create their own interface to Skype and seamlessly integrate it into their own products. And, because the underlying Skype services are much less likely to change on a whim, GW Micro decided to take advantage of this service and create a simple, elegant, fully accessible interface to Skype which is designed with the visually impaired community in mind.

GWConnect is an application that is plugged into Skype. Having full control of the user interface also means that unlike the official Skype client, GWConnect's interface will not dramatically change from version to version. When you learn how to use GWConnect today, you can be confident that your knowledge will continue to apply in the future as new versions are released.

Why GWConnect?

• GWConnect will always make the Skype service available to blind and visually impaired computer users regardless of new versions of Skype that are released.
• GWConnect is a demonstration of the power of interfacing with Window-Eyes.
• All blind and visually impaired users who are running Windows can use GWConnect at no cost. Even those consumers not running Window-Eyes can still download and use GWConnect. Note that non-Window-Eyes users will receive periodic advertisements every half hour. To run GWConnect ad-free, visit the GWConnect catalog page to purchase an activation license. Note that aside from running with ads, the free version has no other restrictions.

Frequently Asked Questions

The following are some frequently asked questions and answers regarding GWConnect. If you continue to have questions or require assistance after reading this section, please use the information in the "Contact Information" section to reach a GW Micro support specialist.

Do I have to install the official Skype client to use GWConnect?

No. The GWConnect setup contains everything required to interact with the Skype service. You may, however, install the official Skype client and switch between the two programs at your own discretion.

Do I have to be a Window-Eyes user to run GWConnect?

No. GWConnect will work with all recent versions of Windows screen readers and magnifiers. GWConnect is written to allow all blind and visually impaired people, regardless of screen reader preference, to have an easy, accessible Skype experience.

How much does GWConnect cost?

GWConnect costs nothing. It is available for free at http://www.gwmicro.com/apps/GWConnect. If you are not a Window-Eyes user, however, you may purchase an ad-free experience by visiting the GWConnect catalog page at http://www.gwmicro.com/catalog/gw_connect.

Can I sign up for the Skype service with GWConnect?

Yes. To sign up for Skype, simply open the "Sign In" window from under the Skype menu and click the "Sign up for Skype" button. You will be taken to the account sign up web page at Skype.com where you can create a new account. When your account has been successfully created, enter your new Skype username and password into the sign in window, click "Sign In," and you can begin using Skype immediately.

Why does my password disappear when I open the sign in window?

The part of GWConnect responsible for handling communication between the GWConnect user interface and the Skype service handles all password storage and management. As such, GWConnect itself never stores your password for any reason. Thus, if you have GWConnect set to automatically sign in to your account and you have instructed it to remember your password, the program will do so until you manually sign out.

Whenever I talk to someone, the rest of my Windows audio gets turned down. How do I fix this?

Windows Vista and Windows 7 include a feature where the operating system automatically ducks any background audio whenever services such as GWConnect are used. This has the unfortunate consequence of also turning down your software speech synthesizer. To disable this:

1. Press the Windows key to open the Start Menu.
2. Enter "sound," and press the Down Arrow until you reach the Control Panel applet.
3. Press Control-Tab until you reach the "Communications" tab.
4. Your keyboard focus lands in a group of radio buttons. Press the Down Arrow until you reach "Do Nothing."
5. Press Alt-A to activate the "Apply" button.
6. Press Enter to close the dialog.

Now, when you make or receive Skype calls, your Windows audio settings will be left alone.

Why can't I send or receive video calls?

While the Windows Skype runtime includes some video support, the needed infrastructure was not made available in time for GWConnect 2.0. GWConnect will be updated to support video calling in a future update.

Can I run GWConnect and the official Skype client at the same time?

Yes. If you are running GWConnect 1.03 or newer, you may sign in to both Skype and GWConnect with the same account on the same computer with no conflicts. If you are running older versions of GWConnect, however, you must sign in to separate accounts for each program to prevent a database I/O error. In either instance, no conflict will occur if you sign in to your account on multiple machines.

Take care, however, that you have no overlapping global hotkey definitions between both programs. Otherwise, whichever program loads first will receive access to the commands. For instance, if you have Skype and GWConnect set to pick up incoming calls with the Alt-Page Up hotkey, and you load Skype after GWConnect, then GWConnect will use the command because it was loaded first. Additionally, there may be unpredictable behavior if both programs attempt to access the same audio hardware simultaneously. If possible, use separate hotkeys and audio devices for each program to minimize any potential resource conflicts.

Will I be able to use third-party plugins (such as call recorders) with GWConnect?

No. Third-party plugins which utilize the Skype desktop API are currently not compatible with custom Skype clients-- including GWConnect. On the other hand, programs which create virtual audio devices for the sake of capturing audio such as Total Recorder from www.TotalRecorder.com have been reported to enable call recording in GWConnect.

Do others on my contact list have to also run GWConnect before I can call them?

No. Your contacts may use any Skype client which supports voice calls and/or text chatting such as GWConnect, the official Skype client for Windows, or even Skype for other operating systems such as Mac OSX, iOS, Android, and Linux. In the end, GWConnect is simply an accessible front-end to the same Skype service used by millions of people around the globe every day.

Why does GWConnect keep changing my preferred audio input device to my sound card's microphone?

If you have a sound card such as an SB Live Value or SB Audigy and use Windows XP, GWConnect will only be able to access the generic input driver exposed through Windows. As a consequence, you cannot directly configure the hardware input (microphone, line in, stereo mix, etc.) from within GWConnect's options window. If this happens, the Skype runtime will always select the microphone despite what you may have set in the Windows Volume Control. While Skype is aware of this issue, there is presently no way to disable this behavior. If possible, use a different sound card with GWConnect which exposes individual hardware inputs and outputs.

I sometimes receive a "Connect Error" message when I try to send a voicemail. What can I do?

This is a Skype Kit issue which is still under investigation. An update will be made available once Skype identifies and corrects the problem.

Getting Support

GWConnect technical support is available exclusively through the GW-Apps mailing list. Here you can interact with other GWConnect users and GW Micro staff should you have any problems, suggestions, or questions. To subscribe to GW-Apps, visit http://www.gwmicro.com/lists. GW Micro offers no telephone-based support for GWConnect.

Skype™ is a trademark of Skype Technologies S.A.

Supported Languages: English, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Swedish, Turkish, Russian, Danish, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Slovak, Nepali, Korean

Minimum Version: Window-Eyes 7.0

• The SkypeKit runtime has been updated to version 4.3.1.
• The initial startup time of GWConnect has been significantly decreased.
• The update process has been greatly streamlined. Future GWConnect releases will be able to be downloaded and installed directly from the program's "Check for Updates" option in the Help menu.
• Compatibility with Windows 8 has been improved.
• The Control-Shift-F10 hotkey has been added to allow you to review the ten most recently spoken messages.
• The format of final call durations is now reported more sanely; e.g. if a call lasted for only 5 minutes, you will see its duration as "05:00" instead of "00:05:00."
• There were some circumstances where some GWConnect windows were unfocusable if their positions were saved after they had been hidden. This has been fixed.
• If GWConnect detects a corrupted settings file, it will now automatically reset itself with no need of user intervention.
• Users of non-Latin languages reported errors resulting from text conversations. All such errors have been corrected.
• If you set your mood text to something which contained Arabic characters, the Skype Kit would sometimes throw an error. This has been fixed.
• In previous versions of GWConnect, the "Add" or "Edit" custom contact group dialogs would always display in English even if GWConnect was set to run in another language. This has been fixed.
• There were cases where GWConnect would occasionally not allow you to place a second call with someone with whom you previously spoke without first restarting the program. This has been fixed.
• The "drop from conference" menu item has been added to the right-click context menu in GWConnect's main window. In addition, it will only become enabled if a conference is active, the logged in user is its host, and the selected contact is a participant who can be dropped. While the underlying behavior of this feature has not changed, the user interface will more accurately reflect when participants can be dropped.
• There was an issue where users of Latin-based languages would sometimes have their default country codes set to Afghanistan. This has been fixed.
• The conversations window accessible from the Skype menu now displays conferences in addition to text chats in reverse-chronological order and also shows the date and time each was last updated.
• Pressing the spacebar on the Enable checkbox inside the hotkeys section of the Options dialog did not change the state of the checkbox. This has been fixed.
• If a conference was active, you called someone to add, but he/she denied the request, subsequent attempts to invite the person would sometimes fail. This has been fixed.
• The text chat window user interface has been expanded to include a list of all conversation participants, a context menu for performing predefined actions on the selected contact, and a button to allow you to leave a conference (when appropriate).
• When clicking the "Call" button inside a conversation window, GWConnect will now rejoin a live voice session if one is active. Note that this only works for conferences created by GWConnect or Skype 4 and newer.
• The "Send Files" button inside text chat windows will now remain active for conferences. Previously it was only possible to send files to one person at a time.
• Using the message review hotkeys F1 through F10 inside a text chat window sometimes resulted in incomplete feedback. This has been fixed.
• Attempting to manipulate a conversation window associated with a voice-only conference resulted in the inability to focus the text input area. This has been fixed.
• The title bars of conversation windows would not properly update if either a contact's status changed (in the case of one-on-one calls) or if someone joined or left a conference. This has been fixed.
• Some voicemail-related errors have been corrected.
• It is now possible to send files to multiple contacts simultaneously from within the main GWConnect window.
• If the "contact online" sound is defined, it will only play when a contact's availability changes from offline to online.
• An option to automatically switch GWConnect's input and output devices to USB headsets has been added to the Devices tab of the Options dialog.
• An option to specify whether rejected calls are sent to voicemail has been added to the General tab of the Options dialog. For this to have any noticeable effect, voicemail must already be enabled for the logged in user.
• When your status is set to "do not disturb," GWConnect will automatically reject any incoming calls, voice alerts will cease, and any sound playback will be suspended. Setting your availability to anything else will return GWConnect to its normal behavior.
• Instead of automatically retiring from conferences when the "Hang Up" command is invoked, GWConnect will merely leave any active live session. This permits the user to rejoin the conference later.
• If voicemail was active for the signed in account and GWConnect was set to reject a call after a specified period, the call was rejected but the incoming call window would sometimes remain displayed. This has been fixed.
• Instead of displaying a generic error message, launching a second copy of GWConnect will now reactivate any previously open copy.
• If GWConnect is running in sponsored mode, Alt-Shift-F10 (or the respective menu item in the Help menu) will open the most recently spoken advertiser's home page in the default web browser.
• A link to go to the GWConnect advertising page has been added to the Help menu.
• The welcome and file transfer dialogs have been made taller.
• Support for Bulgarian, Croatian, Egyptian Arabic, Polish, and Slovak languages has been added.
• Additional minor bugs have been corrected.

On 8/2/2012, jennipalmer1011 wrote:

I wish it would stop disabling sounds. Like calls work far as it using my usb soundcard for the call as a mic and stuff but the sounds for the program stop working and i have to reset them the next time i restart the program I have to do it all over. I have no idea what's causing this. It's annoying though. Then when I do unplug the usb sound card then plug it back in i gotta tell it all the device settings again. odd. oh and sometimes sounds work sometimes they don't. Any work on this or pointers are appreciated.

On 5/23/2012, msoct wrote:

This latest update of gw connect is truly magnificent. I love the add free option and the fact calls can be held and resumed and contacts can be renamed. Truly the only two features separating gw connect from native skype are video support and facebook integration. Once these are implemented gw connect will be right up there with native skype. Keep up the excelent work. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what improvements come in the future. I can't say enough about this wonderful product.

On 3/27/2012, solidrock wrote:

GW Connect is a terrific product, I use it every day. Version 1.05 took a step backward, it takes a long long time to launch. But once it launches, it is still terrific.

On 2/17/2012, slanovani wrote:

gw connect is becoming more magnificent every time, but it still misses an important feature. on the original skype client, users can rename their contacts, i mean, customize the name of a particular contact. i think, this feature must also be implemented in gw connect

On 1/29/2012, slanovani wrote:

why can't i rename my contacts?

On 1/28/2012, slanovani wrote:

this is a great application, it really simplifies the access to skype. but i am from colombia, and i would like to see this app in my native language, spanish