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New Skype Update Is Horrible

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181–190 of 334 posts

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#181
Another Microsoft property they don't know what to do with.

Ten years ago I used Skype a lot - to keep with my parents in another country, but recently I removed it completely. We switched to FaceTime and Facebook Messenger long time ago, and I don't know anyone who uses Skype anymore.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#183
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.

WeChat, while excellent on iOS, is also a lifesaver on the desktop given that they provide true native apps for Mac and Windows (no Electron!) Video/voice calls, file sharing, group chat, stickers, everything is there, but the performance alone makes this more usable over other chat apps today. It seems that over the years, their PM team is more confident (capable?) in keeping a good balance between core chat usabili…

Does WeChat offer any thing over LINE? I ended up uninstalling WeChat because it was using up 20% of my daily battery despite only opening up the app once every couple weeks.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#184
I might have a complete misunderstanding of the situation, but I see three main explanations:

1) Microsoft has absolutely no interest in Skype being a viable option, and wants Skype users to adopt some other Microsoft product. Why doesn't Microsoft tell Skype users "Well, Skype is done, just use MSN."

2) People responsible for Skype are optimizing for some metrics, which is opposite to user satisfaction. What is that metric?

3) People responsible for Skype have no idea what they're doing, get no input from community, don't see how people are mad about these particular UI changes, and misunderstand how people use Skype... In which case, why are they still in charge?

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part about "Skype for business" is that it replaced Lync, which was much better IMO. It was simple but effective, and I don't remember having any kind of problem with it

Skype for Business IS Lync, mildly rebranded. The executable is even called lync.exe...

Except it now looks and works crap now. I'm still on the old Lync client at my office even though many people have "upgraded" to skype for business. At some point my hand will be forced and I will be annoyed.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

zoom

Best part about Zoom and similar programs is that you don't have to deal with the horrible Skype search feature for everyone in the call before starting it. Why can't people find me by my username? Who knows. Why don't I see people online even though I know they are already, forcing both of us to message each other before we can start a call? Who knows. With Zoom and other conference programs, callers just join the c…

Zoom has a web client these days that I find rather decent.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#187
post #115
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up with the native clients earlier this year when I could no longer get any to run and log me in. I now use https://github.com/stanfieldr/ghetto-skype Yeah it's Electron web-shit and it doesn't work with video calls (but there are enough low-friction alternatives now like Hangouts I can insist on should a skype friend really want to video chat) but at least it's no worse than their browser interface and won't…

There is a plugin which adds Skype support to Pidgin which I have yet to try. https://github.com/EionRobb/skype4pidgin/tree/master/skypewe...

I use Pidgin to chat with other people at my work who are on Skype For Business (Lync). Works decently.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#188

My worst Skype annoyance was when they seized your purchased credits if your account was left unused for 180 days. As a sporadic user of Skype when I needed to place an international call etc, having purchased credits reset automatically was such a provocation [0]. Every time I have to re-install Skype for some reason, there's always a new regression or dark UX pattern in use. [0] https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01…

When can we talk about facetime? They don't even have group chat. I've been waiting for it a long time ago.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#189

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.…

Both my employer (120,000 employees) and our main contractor (20,000 employees) use Skype for Business. By use, I mean we've purchased it and deployed it to every employee in the world. It's never worked, ever, for anything. Not for audio, not for screen sharing, not for chat. I now decline all meeting requests that rely on Skype for Business for some essential part of the meeting.

Worked for company that was bought by MS. During the acquisition period, I was working for 3rd level enterprise support and were main contact for escalation of issues from our OS X users and MS. And yes, it never worked. Higher up guys where patting themselves on the backs for migrating to Lync and now it was So Well Executed while we in the actual client interface where left to deal with abysmal (platinum) support, private hotfixes, fixes what worked at one release and didn't on newer ones and all sorts of crazyness.

The "reason" that was said to be the issue was "our internal routing between the sites" and Yeah, pretty much every issue we had never manifested it worker was at home and used home connection or used cellphone client and gsm operator for data.

But yeah, fuck Lync. Worst gig ever. One reason why I think rebranding Lync to Skype for Business made sense: let's fool someone to buy it by letting them think they where getting same tech as real Skype, not just same shit with different name.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#190
post #128

Seriously, skype is not a social media platform, so stop trying to make it one Microsoft! Skype is a standard video/voice chat/conferencing that has found its place in everywhere from gaming to professional meetings, so what you’re doing here is diluting your target market.

It's not their target market. They don't care about Skype. That's clear. They bought it to eliminate it as a competitor.

Or use the name for marketing purposes, Skype did actually work while Lync has always been pos. Maybe things have improved since but I have my doubts.
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