I am sure you must have tried / searched a lot about this and that is why you are here. But I promise that this solution works for running multiple instances of Skype on Mac OS X.
Note: If you want to see it in action, then scroll to the bottom of this post for the video tutorial on how you can run multiple instances of Skype on Mac OS X.
I always wanted to run two instances of Skype in Mac OS X since the day I moved to OS X form Windows plus Linux combo. I tried to search on many forums, but nothing worked for me. Unlike Linux Mac OS X do not allow multiple instances of Skype by default. But I was sure there is some solution around the corner, since the base of Mac OS X is Unix.Now let’s see how it works –
Multiple Instances of Skype on Mac OS X
The trick is to run Skype using different user and instantiate the new Skype UI session via terminal but on behalf of the other user. So first of all we are going to create a new User, let’s suppose the new username is Sachin.You might have to restart your Mac once you have created a new user. After the new user is setup, follow the steps.
Open Terminal window.
Switch to second user while you are logged into first user by typing su sachin ; where su means switch user. You will see something like below.
$ su sachin Password:... bash-3.2$ |
Now you are in Sachin’s environment, browse to the folder where Skype is installed and execute the Skype.app . See the following set of commands.
bash-3.2$ cd /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS bash-3.2$ ./Skype |
And with some information in the terminal, the new Skype window will show up.
If you want to see this in action, then watch this video from Digimantra’s Youtube Channel.
Stay Digified!!
Sachin Khosla
