New Skype Update Is Horrible • Hacker News Board

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#211

Post by candiodari » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 1:26 AM UTC

ClassyJacket wrote: post #194

m1el wrote: post #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…

"Why doesn't Microsoft tell Skype users "Well, Skype is done, just use MSN." I'm not aware of anything else they have now that could be supposed to replace it? They already did this the other way around. They closed MSN Messenger in 2013, and told everyone to just use Skype. Skype WAS supposed to the their main messaging app now.

You forget that they replaced Skype with an MSN service while doing this.

So in reality you might as well say they "reskinned" Office messenger, called Lync (which I believe started as a version of MSN messenger long ago) and then put out an "update" for Skype that replaced it with Lync, with the banners, window titles, website names, etc, replaced with "skype". That's what happened.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#212

Post by jwong_ » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 1:38 AM UTC

tsukaisute wrote: post #23

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.

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…

How do you get this fabled native WeChat desktop application? As far as I can tell, it's an Electron app. It sucks up tons of resources on my computers.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#213

Post by d_t_w » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 1:41 AM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #135

scrollaway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have high hopes for Discord video, which is coming out soon. Knowing the discord team and seeing the quality of the voice product, I'm finally going to be able to replace god-awful Google Hangouts.

Have you tried appear.in? It's become my go-to video conference. No logins, just make up an arbitrary link (ie appear.in/some-random-string) and voila. So far it's been more reliable than hangouts. (I have nothing to do with them other than wondering why everyone doesn't use it)

I use it regularly, it's great.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#214

Post by flukus » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 1:49 AM UTC

eigenvector wrote: post #138

muppetman wrote: post #34

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.

Audio works well for us, for 1 to 1 conversations anyway. I haven't tried but apparently it's not so good at n to n. Screen sharing did work well until the latest update, now it hardly ever works and we have to use webex.

Chat is it's own mixed bag. Sometimes there is noticeable lag, you will get a popup showing you received the message but it will take several more seconds to show in the chat window. Very occasionally a message will take minutes to arrive or not at all. Copying and pasting is always a nightmare.

I wish ICQ would take their client from the late 90's and make a business version.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#215

Post by cyphar » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 1:55 AM UTC

api wrote: post #170

nailer wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience: Microsoft deleted all my childhood email because I didn't log into hotmail frequently enough. This included the emails I sent to my first love. And the ones she sent me. All gone. Because Microsoft wanted to save some tiny amount of space. I love Microsoft and an writing this on a Surface device now but Christ, that was awful and would make me think twice about using Microsoft online servi…

You should think twice about storing anything in the cloud, especially if the service is "free." Always make your own backup of anything you care about. Basically if it's local back it up to the cloud, and if it's only in the cloud back it up locally.

I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice.

Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless abandon. You may argue "hey, it's their cloud" but it's also your data -- and that's kinda like arguing that a library that accepts book donations and then goes on to shreds book that nobody is borrowing anymore is justified in their actions.

[1]: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#216

Post by njarboe » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:03 AM UTC

pveierland wrote: post #66

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…

Thanks for the info. I rarely had need of Skype credits and it would make me mad when they disappeared. Now I know how to get them back. It doesn't seem like it would be worth the PR hit to take them from people after only 180 days and, if there was some strange accounting/legal reason they really wanted to inactivate them, they should display a small a link under your $0 balance to go to the re-activate page.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#217

Post by tsukaisute » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:04 AM UTC

jwong_ wrote: post #212

tsukaisute wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How do you get this fabled native WeChat desktop application? As far as I can tell, it's an Electron app. It sucks up tons of resources on my computers.

The version I have is from the Mac App Store

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#218

Post by thaumasiotes » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:05 AM UTC

spollo wrote: post #207

rapind wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same logic with gift cards. If I have 50 real dollars that never expire, why would the $50 card you spend it on expire? The marketing that has convinced us gift cards are appropriate while cash / cheques are not is impressive.

Here in Canada gift cards do not expire (IIRC there is a law against it). Is this not the case elsewhere? I know myself and many other people prefer gift cards because it forces you to buy something for yourself instead of just adding it to the savings account. It shows slightly more thought than just hard cash as well.

They don't expire in California either, but they can in other states.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#219

Post by wingworks » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:07 AM UTC

lightedman wrote: post #141

scrollaway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have high hopes for Discord video, which is coming out soon. Knowing the discord team and seeing the quality of the voice product, I'm finally going to be able to replace god-awful Google Hangouts.

I hope Discord Video uses less resources than Camfrog. If they can, then I'd finally switch to Discord, assuming Discord can handle many hundreds of video streams at once like Camfrog can.

Me too, the only thing missing from Discord apart from video for me is its spell checking...

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#220

Post by thaumasiotes » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:08 AM UTC

cyphar wrote: post #215

api wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should think twice about storing anything in the cloud, especially if the service is "free." Always make your own backup of anything you care about. Basically if it's local back it up to the cloud, and if it's only in the cloud back it up locally.

I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice. Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless aband…

> that's kinda like arguing that a library that accepts book donations and then goes on to shreds book that nobody is borrowing anymore is justified in their actions.

You mean, all libraries?