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New Skype Update Is Horrible

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Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#311

Post by herbst »

dinnouti wrote: post #125
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…

That's the reason I switch to google hangouts for my international calls. Just open the browser and make the call.

I did this for a while. But the average mobile Internet I have in switzerland is so bad that the quality suffers a lot. As much as I hate it, it still works well with whatsapp

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#312

Post by whatitis123 »

My friend updated Skype on her phone. I called her from my comp Skype when she was in a shower. Her new Skype got connected without her pressing any buttons and I head everything what was going in her room (TV)! I called 3 times and it happened every time! Seems that everyone can connect to your new Skype on your phone without your permission and hear all your conversations? What is going on? What they did? What for? When I told her about it she turned off her phone and we talked by comp Skype. BTW she lives outside of the US. It's dangerous for everyone, especially for businesses, and also for kids!

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#313

Post by mustacheemperor »

mosselman wrote: post #36

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?

The Skype api exists in a kind of semi-deprecated limbo. MS tried to kill it abruptly a while back and were talked into keeping limited support over time. It's completely undocumented now though. They're actively discouraging developers from the platform.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#314

Post by mosselman »

listentojohan wrote: post #303
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…

I'm surprised by the amount of comments simply stating it's your own damn fault. It seems that for the OP, and for me, that this might have been the very first email that OP had. At a young age most probably. While it's not a given that emails are stored indefinitely for you online - MS didn't exactly warn or spell it out, that it at some point, at its discretion, would simply delete the emails.

I doubt that this was not explained in the TOS.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#315

Post by davidf18 »

faho wrote: post #178
davidf18 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use FaceTime when you can. A lot of people have iPhones and many these days now have Macs.

>A lot of people have iPhones and many these days now have Macs. Not really here in Germany. iOS has about 20% of the market, Android the other 80%. macOS is at about 8%. Anecdotally, even discounting that I have neither, of the 20 or so people I'd realistically want to chat with (friends and family), two have iPhones and one has a mac. Plus: What happens when they switch? Or when I want to switch? Also, I don't real…

Well, you can also use FaceTime with iPads.

In the US, many people have the iPhones and iPads. For professionals worldwide at least in developed countries, it makes sense to use iPhones which are far, far more secure than Android platforms, especially when taking into account total cost of ownership, the monthly fee for cell service on a high quality network.

In professional settings, the Mac is becoming a more popular platform, IBM is converting many Thinkpads over to Macs.

Many in Europe, even the young, smoke cigarettes which are very costly with the taxes. I'd suggest for both health reasons and using money for better purposes to quit smoking cigarettes and use the money for iPhones (and Macs).

A pack of Marlboros in Germany is about $8 per pack according to Wikipedia.

My daily cost for being on the Verizon (top cell provider, esp in NYC) network and having Verizon yearly upgrade for latest iPhone is $5 per day. Upgrading to latest MacBook 15" Pro from recent model is about $2 to $3 per day.

The Macs, iPhones, and iPads play much better together as an ecosystem.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#316

Post by kenrob82 »

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…

Good reasoning! As pointed out eg in https://twitter.com/reactnative/status/832648387220484097 the new Android/iOS Skype is not a native app but react-native. That means it’s not really an update but a complete rewrite. The metric they optimize for is cost, they want to use the same JS code on all platforms. Of course explanation 3 is valid too.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#317

Post by AlvySinger »

Just tried to use skype on my iphone when an alert came up notifying me of a required update.

I updated to find, not skype- but some new social network I want absolutely no part of. The app is no longer on my phone. I'll continue to try and use skype through my computer until the powers that be decide to mess with that as well. Hello Google voice & Facetime

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#318

Post by AlvySinger »

Just tried to use skype on my iphone when an alert came up notifying me of a required update.

I updated to find, not skype- but some new social network I want absolutely no part of. The app is no longer on my phone. I'll continue to try and use skype through my computer until the powers that be decide to mess with that as well. Hello Google voice & Facetime

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#319

Post by alkonaut »

ajanuary wrote: post #307
alkonaut wrote: post #117

Why is there a little smiley in every message bubble? Nothing happens if I click it. Is there any way to downgrade an app on iOS short of restoring a backup? I don't have iTunes (it would be pretty ironic to use iTunes to try to avoid a bad app wouldn't it)

If I tap it I get the option to react with different emoticons to the specific message, similar to iMessage's tapback.

That's what I'd expect it to do too. Obviously it doesn't (it does nothing at all) but I guess I sort of expected nothing more.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#320

Post by onetokeover »

When Wechat updates it's voluntary. Made a free w/c to w/c call internationally. Decent sound. Then went to make a paid call on Skype. Forced upgrade again? We went through this 2 or 3 years ago. It won't work this time, not with me. I just got a refund. Will spend the day looking for an old school html (not html5) site that let's us call the world for a penny a minute. They're out there.
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