Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#21

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:05 PM UTC

nkoren wrote: post #9

mnkypete wrote: post #4

Um.. I'm not sure the article author is familiar with the fact that "Skype for business" (the "complex" one) is actually home grown and was just rebranded from Lync. This is not at all the same as the consumer Skype, which actually tries to be a weird mixup between Snapchat and whatnot at the moment (failing utterly of course). Skype for Business (+ PSTN calling) is actually pretty great on Office 365 tbh...

Unless you're not using Windows, in which case it functionally doesn't exist. Seriously. I have never successfully connected a single call with it. (Understood that the same criticism can be levelled at Facetime etc -- which I also don't use.)

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#22

Post by patrickg_zill » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:05 PM UTC

My view in the past was, that MSFT was essentially paid by the NSA to buy Skype and then remove the ability to make secure calls with it, by sending all the media (audio/video) through centralized servers that could easily tap the calls. Am I incorrect in that?

Previously, Skype was peer-to-peer after the call was setup, with Skype servers only helping in setting up the call (essentially updating the registry of "who was where" in real-time).

EDIT to add: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions...

https://lists.randombit.net/pipermail/cryptography/2013-May/...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-... (summary of certain Snowden docs)

(just a few links among many available)

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#23

Post by boksiora » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

new Skype is awful, but you can still use the old interface

from this page https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/ - choose "Get Classic Skype"

hope they continue to support the old interface

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#24

Post by bonestamp2 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

The current version of skype is rife with usability problems, they dropped a lot of key things since the last major version...

- The mute/unmute button hides itself, even when your mouse pointer is ready and waiting right over top of it (to click when it's your turn to speak)

- To add more kick to the nuts, they also apparently removed the mute/unmute shortcut key

- Screen shares dim when your mouse is over them

- If you're watching a screen share, you can't reply to someone else without hiding the screen share

- System music is no longer paused when a call comes in... not a big deal, but it was nice before when it would pause your music

- Favorites no longer exist and pinned sorting sucks now, it was better when these two lists were separate

- You can't change the width of the contact list, now it's always too small or too large depending on the window size

All of these things were fine in the last major version.

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#25

Post by ivraatiems » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

Consumer Skype isn't just awful for calling, it's also awful as even a basic chat client now. Recent mobile updates have made it much, much harder to use and began prioritizing a SnapChat-style "stories" feature that nobody asked for or wanted, because there's already an app for that called SnapChat.

I switched from Skype to Discord, as did pretty much everyone I know. It has all the same features Skype used to have - good-quality audio and video chat, friends lists, private messaging - with the added benefit of no ads and a server system for congregating with large groups. It also has more and better third-party integrations, and good feature parity between apps/web client/desktop client.

I'm sure at some point Discord will get bought out, and then slowly ruined, as Skype was, but at that point I suppose we'll all just jump ship again to whatever the next thing is.

I haven't used business Skype, but have never heard a word of praise for it.

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#26

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #3

Skype would have been destroyed at this point by Google and Apple and Facebook. Platform integration always wins over early movers once the giants catch up technologically. The real story is that MS wildly overpaid for a brand that they couldn't leverage and that they didn't need to target the corporate market where "Skype" (which isn't actually Skype, just rebranded MS code!) is doing well.

I am confused why anyone would think Skype for Business is doing well. It's terrible software and Microsoft's already basically said they're going to fold it's capabilities into Teams and kill Skype for Business outright.

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#27

Post by newsbinator » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

zenbob wrote: post #6

Am I the only one who thought pre-Microsoft skype was a poorly-functioning product?

Pre-Microsoft Skype suffered from connection issues, poor call quality, and dropped contact lists.

Post-Microsoft Skype suffers from connection issues, poor call quality, dropped contact lists, impossible to find options, and a user interface designed to be Snapchat.

Calling my mom's phone, which is at the top of my address book, takes like 6 touches, and that's because I do it often enough that muscle memory overrides UI confusion.

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#28

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

zenbob wrote: post #6

Am I the only one who thought pre-Microsoft skype was a poorly-functioning product?

Skype was always a little bit iffy on message delivery when it was peer to peer.

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#29

Post by victor106 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

I tried using Skype recently and the UX is horrendous. I mean just to make a call is so hard.

The product has zero focus.

If you want to learn what NOT to do look at Skype

Re: Microsoft Turned Consumers Against the Skype Brand

#30

Post by michrassena » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:08 PM UTC

mnkypete wrote: post #4

Um.. I'm not sure the article author is familiar with the fact that "Skype for business" (the "complex" one) is actually home grown and was just rebranded from Lync. This is not at all the same as the consumer Skype, which actually tries to be a weird mixup between Snapchat and whatnot at the moment (failing utterly of course). Skype for Business (+ PSTN calling) is actually pretty great on Office 365 tbh...

Skype for Business client and server both seem to work pretty well. What I find annoying is Microsoft conflating the branding between two very different products, a rebadged enterprise communications product (formerly Lync) and a commercial-consumer product. So when someone says they want to make a Skype call with a client, what do they mean? Sometimes it's Skype for Business and sometimes it's plain old Skype. It costs everyone time and money when this isn't communicated clearly and one end of the call expects to use Skype and the other end Skype for Business.