GNOME Shell Skype Integration

This extension simplifies the life for Microsoft Skype users. It makes use of the Skype API, which is unfortunately no longer supported, but still works with Skype version 4.2.0.11, 4.2.0.13, and¹ 4.3.0.37.

Integrated features:

• display online presence in top bar icon
• add an indicator to the top bar icon for missed chat messages and calls
• use GNOME Shell notification style for Skype notifications
• show a list of recent chats with an activity indicator in the top bar menu
• ability to change online presence in the top bar menu
• mute microphone during calls within the top bar menu
• search provider to find Skype contacts

Installation

There are two possibilities:

• Visit the Skype Integration page on extensions.gnome.org, click on the switch ("OFF" => "ON"), click on the install button.
• Or, download the source (3.6, 3.8, 3.10, 3.12, 3.14, 3.16, 3.18, 3.20), copy the folder SkypeNotification@chrisss404.gmail.com from the downloaded archive to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/, restart GNOME Shell (Alt+F2, r, Enter) and enable the extension through gnome-tweak-tool.

Dependencies:

D-Bus Python Bindings
    on Ubuntu: python-dbus
    on Fedora: dbus-python

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FAQs

How can I find debug/error output?

• Alt+F2, lg, Enter, navigate to Extensions tab and find Show errors
• and / or journalctl -xn -f /usr/bin/gnome-shell

How can I enable and disable individual notifications?

Go to Options > Notifications and click on Advanced View. If the option Execute the following script is checked, the notification is enabled otherwise it is disabled (initial question). Here is a list of all supported notifications.

Top bar menu icon shows, but I get no notifications, what can I do?

Make sure that you have installed Python D-Bus bindings. You can check by executing python ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/SkypeNotification@chrisss404.gmail.com/notify.py -e"ChatIncoming" -n"Test" -f"%fname" -p"%fpath" -m"hello" -s"%fsize" -u"%sskype".

Can't install anymore after recent update, what shall I do?

Completely remove the extension by executing (rm -rf ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/SkypeNotification@chrisss404.gmail.com), restart GNOME Shell (Alt+F2, r, Enter) and reinstall it (initial question).

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Screenshots

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Inspired by

• https://github.com/MrTheodor/gnome-shell-ext-SkypeNotification
• https://gist.github.com/nzjrs/1006316
• https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/166/skype-contact-search/

Credits to

• https://github.com/whhglyphs/webhostinghub-glyphs/ (thanks keynslug for telling me about this awesome icons)

[1] Retirement of older versions of Skype