so i got a skype account.. added skype on fring as an "add-in". The question is, does it work any better adding skype?
You're doing fine - you HAVE to do the Skype add-on thing in Fring for it all to work the way I describe.
You'll add your friends to your Contact List on your desktop Skype, they'll add you (check out the various privacy features, so you avoid getting spammed by strangers - everyone in the world is on Skype!) so you're Skype prefs are set up for contact with/viewing status with/ only your friends. (Seems identical to me to Yahoo, AIM, and GTalk in that regard, conceptually.)
That's it.
When your buddy list gets populated, tap the name, vid away!
Some notes for how I use it:
All of the IM clients for Android are battery hogs, in my limited personal experience - Fring is no exception - they all want to constantly talk to their clouds.
So, get a feel for how much juice it sucks up with your other phone use - just as you would any IM - before deciding to leave it on all the time or only on occasion. Note to turn on/off automatic startup in settings to suit you.
I do NOT show my phone contacts on Fring. The Evo's plenty powerful enough managing my sms chats and so forth, I don't need Fring doubling the scroll length of my contact list.
I do not show my offline buddies. I know they love me, I don't need to see their names when they're offline.
I do not attach my fring signature - it's just unneeded bytes at the end of text messages - unless - I want people to know I'm on my phone for all of the good reasons.
That's it - let me know how it goes.
An Important PS - Fring loses its mind when you logoff - you have to re-enter username and password when you do that. Instead, when you're done, just Exit, and next time in, everything's automagic and you'll save typing time.
Another PS - When you do the Add-on thing in Fring - you're not really adding anything except a login to that "Add-on" gateway - for Skype or AIM or whatever. It doesn't add more software or anything.
A Fring "Add-on" is kinda exactly like an Add Account on your Mail app.