New Skype Update Is Horrible • Hacker News Board

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#31

Post by risratorn » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:04 PM UTC

burntcookie90 wrote: post #17

Meekro wrote: post #10

What could I switch to (on both Mac and PC) that would give me better video chat functionality? Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for: 1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US). 2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good. 3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do. 4. IM-like client that supports text, v…

zoom.us is what we use at Trello with 100+ people at times.

I can second that zoom.us is a very good alternative ... it's not really a chat application but for multiuser confcalls or video calls it's miles ahead of the competition like gotomeetings or skype.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#32

Post by sciurus » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #9

komali2 wrote: post #5

Has skype ever been good? For as long as I can remember it was a necessary evil until we finally managed to replace it with Hangouts and the like.

...Has Hangouts ever been good? Like, I totally get complaining about Skype. The P2P stuff caused it to be kinda wonky. But your choice for "better" is Hangouts? Between the five or six alternative Google chat offerings, the attempts to merge it with the dialer and SMS apps, the cutting out of the online/offline statuses. Google Talk was great though, back in the day.

i wouldn't want to use Hangouts for a chat app, but for video conferences it works well. My employer has their Chromebox or Chromebase hardware for Hangouts in almost every meeting room.

https://enterprise.google.com/chrome/video-conferencing/

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#33

Post by ghthor » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

CSDude wrote: post #7

I have witnessed Skype to go from almost perfect video & chat communicator to absolute crap over almost 10 years, and I feel very sad that it has come to rip off Snapchat. There is no alternative like the old Skype now in the desktop.

There has to be a good desktop alternative or at least a good browser based alternative. Perhaps with WebRTC the best alternatives are now browser based, maybe discord or riot.im?

It is sad though that basically the only desktop based chat/voice/video communications app listed at alternativeto.net[1] is LinPhone which in theory is a drop in replacement for skype, but in practice it is not =.=

[1] http://alternativeto.net/software/skype/

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#34

Post by muppetman » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

Microsoft have driven Skype into the ground. How they can release something this childish and terrible, yet also have the "Skype for Business" brand I don't understand.

If this had been released as "Skype for Fun" or "Skype for Kids" I'd almost understand. But trying to force users into this hideous mess is very frustrating, Skype was a dependable, if bloated app. Now I fear getting messages via it, it's so horrible.

Nothing will happen though. We're all upset, but Microsoft isn't going to roll back an upgrade/decision of this magnitude.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#35

Post by caryhartline » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

m3kw9 wrote: post #3

Still can't make a (edit-added SKYPE.) call from contacts app in iOS. What's so hard about that?

Do you mean a Skype call? Because you absolutely can make a phone call or FaceTime video/audio call from contacts.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#36

Post by mosselman » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

They also keep breaking APIs left and right: my dedicated skype phone (DECT + Skype) keeps losing features and now I can't even call people from the mobile app that have a slightly older Skype version running.

The UI is nonsense: you can't quickly hang up and you have to click several buttons to reach a core feature, the number pad.

What good alternatives are there that also allow me to call landlines?

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#37

Post by Meekro » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #11

Meekro wrote: post #10

What could I switch to (on both Mac and PC) that would give me better video chat functionality? Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for: 1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US). 2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good. 3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do. 4. IM-like client that supports text, v…

Signal, Join.me, FaceTime, et cetera . I no longer accept invitations to communicate via Skype.

FaceTime is Mac only. Join.me seems geared towards business users and pre-arranged meetings -- I want something more like an IM client where I can see who's online and ask to video chat with them. Also, join.me doesn't seem to have a free plan (only a free trial.)

Signal actually looks great, but their Mac/PC client has been in beta since 2015 and isn't linked from the homepage -- I had to dig it up on their blog. Also, video chat has been in beta since March 2017. It's not clear if their beta non-phone client supports the beta video chat. Still, I'm digging their encryption.

I don't mean to shit over your suggestions, I really am looking for something better. But so far, nothing seems like a clear winner.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#38

Post by necessity » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

rynop wrote: post #8

You could totally remove "New" and "Update" from that sentence and it would still be a very true statement. * Full disclosure: my co. was acquired and forced to use office suite.

What are better alternatives in terms of call quality? Hangouts is pretty bad and WhatsApp is awful in my experience. Despite the bloat and the UI Skype is still the only good experience I had.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#39

Post by api » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

Video chat and IP telephony apps seem like some kind of software lemon market. There's some kind of perverse incentive operating here. Even ones that start out nice inevitably degrade over time.

FaceTime used to be nice if you were all Apple, but when they removed P2P it went to crap. The performance got terrible.

Lately I've been using appear.in, which works if you have a webrtc browser or you use the app. It works decently well.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#40

Post by AckSyn » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

CSDude wrote: post #7

I have witnessed Skype to go from almost perfect video & chat communicator to absolute crap over almost 10 years, and I feel very sad that it has come to rip off Snapchat. There is no alternative like the old Skype now in the desktop.

It's truly abysmal, isn't it? I remember skype when it first came out and it was absolutely amazing. After Microsoft acquired it they took down nodes and supernodes, and the quality took a steep dive. It's sad really. Every Microsoft purchase eventually turns to utter crap.