New Skype Update Is Horrible • Hacker News Board

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#221

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:08 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #183

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…

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.

[deleted]

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#222

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

pveierland wrote: post #114

mw6621 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if things have changed since your experience, but the last time I exceeded the 180 days of inactivity, my credits were removed from the Skype client and a link appeared in their place, telling me to "reactivate" my credits on the website. I went to the website and clicked a link and my credits showed in the Skype client again.

As stated in the link, they replaced their expiration policy with a reactivation policy as a result of the class action lawsuit. The last time this happened to my account I was sent a link which allowed me to reactivate the credits.

I just found out mine deactivated in April and I didn't get an email about it. In the iOS app it just showed £0 and suggested I top up.

When following the link through this page I was able to reactivate it:

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/fa10378/how-do-i-reactivate...

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#223

Post by yorwba » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:27 AM UTC

tajen wrote: post #180

userbinator wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're all upset, but Microsoft isn't going to roll back an upgrade/decision of this magnitude. Not unless there is sufficient opposition --- and by "sufficient", I mean almost everyone refusing to upgrade or suddenly moving to an alternative. Flashy dumbed-down UIs seem to be the "modern" trend now. I hope it starts going back in the other direction, but sadly I doubt that will happen...

I can't recall any software company who rolled back an upgrade. UI upgrades take a lot of resources and overhaul, they're also UX-tested, involve marketing ops, etc: If they haven't got the message before, companies prefer to risk dying than cancelling their attempt to pivot. Look at Ubuntu's Unity. Apple's emoji bar. Microsoft's Windows 8.1 tiles.

Ubuntu is moving back to the Gnome shell, I think. So sometimes companies do get the message. (Although I personally like Unity, so the change is going to be a bit annoying.)

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#224

Post by jwong_ » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:27 AM UTC

tsukaisute wrote: post #217

jwong_ wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'll start using it again. I might have been mixing up my memories of the web app.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#225

Post by jwong_ » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:28 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #183

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…

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.

If you know anyone from China, it has everyone there on it. Otherwise, I don't know of any huge differences. Maybe more free stickers?

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#226

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:36 AM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #177

viraptor wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't really have to care what's going on in the wider Google ecosystem. Google hangouts (talk before) pretty much changed the name once. That's it. As far as desktop experience goes there are no alternative offerings. Just ignore the mobile mess.

>You don't really have to care what's going on in the google ecosystem That isn't true, we've been burned before by choosing the "wrong" google product. For example, I was using Hangouts to handle SMS texting from my Google Voice number. Turns out I chose "wrong" because now Hangouts is not to be used for SMS (though it still "works") and there is no way to move my 3 years of conversation history from Hangouts to the…

[deleted]

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#227

Post by devopsforlyfe » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:49 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…

> Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless abandon.

How much are you paying them, per month, to safeguard your data?

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#228

Post by cookiecaper » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:54 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…

It seems helpful to me. Microsoft is not a startup, there is no reason to assume they would just purge Hotmail accounts one day. Reminding people that corporations lose data, whether accidental or intentional, and that they should take individual responsibility for the data they consider significant, is important.

It probably doesn't help the parent feel much better about his situation, but it does help all the other readers to highlight and learn from his experience, and especially to emphasize that such adversarial action against user data is a significant risk at large, established companies as well as small ones.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#229

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:59 AM UTC

candiodari wrote: post #211

ClassyJacket wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

[deleted]

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#230

Post by seizethecheese » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 2:59 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…

Unused credit is considered abandoned property after 6 months, depending on the state. Each state has different regulations. This is a massive pain to deal with, so most places have to work around it.

Source: I used to work at an online bank where we'd close the account after 6 months of inactivity.