How to install Skype on Ubuntu 22.04

The purpose of this tutorial is to show how to install and use Skype on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux. Skype is a video chat and voice calls application, now owned and maintained by Microsoft.

Despite being owned by Microsoft, Skype can still be installed and used on Linux systems, including the Ubuntu distro, as there is an official Linux build available. Skype has been around for a long time and it remains a very popular option for voice calls on PC today, also featuring mobile versions of the application.

In this tutorial, you will see how to install Skype on Ubuntu 22.04 through the snap package manager or with the official Skype Debian package. You will also learn how to open the application after it has been installed.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install Skype from snap on Ubuntu 22.04
  • How to download and install the official Skype Debian package
  • How to open Skype from command line or GUI on Ubuntu 22.04
How to install Skype on Ubuntu 22.04
How to install Skype on Ubuntu 22.04
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
Software Skype
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to Install Skype on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish step by step instructions




There are two different ways you can install Skype on Ubuntu. Either from snap package manager (included by default on Ubuntu 22.04) or by downloading and installing the official Debian installer file from the official Skype website. Choose whichever method you prefer and follow the corresponding step by step instructions below to install the Skype video chat application.

Install Skype with Snap Package Manager

  1. To install Skype with Snap, start by opening a terminal and execute the following command with root privileges.
    $ sudo snap install skype --classic
    

    When the process is complete, you will get a short message in terminal like this:

    skype 8.79.0.95 from Skype✓ installed
    
  2. To open your newly installed Skype application from GNOME GUI (the default GUI on Ubuntu 22.04, although yours may be different), use the Activities menu to search for Skype application and click on the relevant icon to start Skype.
    Start Skype from GUI on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
    Start Skype from GUI on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux
  3. Alternatively, you can always start the Skype application from the command line terminal by simply typing:
    $ skype
    

Skype installation from Official package



  1. To install Skype with the official package from the Skype website, start by opening a terminal and downloading the installer with the following wget command.
    $ wget -O ~/skype.deb https://repo.skype.com/latest/skypeforlinux-64.deb
    

    Note that this command will download the Skype DEB file to your current user’s home directory.

  2. Next, we will install the Skype package downloaded in the previous step by using the apt command with root privileges. This will also install any missing dependencies that are required to run Skype.
    $ sudo apt install ~/skype.deb
    
  3. To start the Skype application execute the following command, or you can just look for the application in your Activities menu.
    $ skypeforlinux
    




That’s all there is to it. Now you will be able to open Skype on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish, and login to your account to get started making chat, voice, and video calls. If you do not already have a Skype account to login to, you will be prompted to create one when you first start up the Skype application.

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw how to install Skype on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux, using both the Snap package manager and the official Skype package. Skype is one of the most popular applications for voice and video calls on the computer. It has multi platform support and can also be used to send simple chat messages.