Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#31

Post by morgante » Sat, Nov 02, 2013, 11:58 PM UTC

vyrotek wrote: post #20

A company I used to work for is panicking over this. One of their core products had an integration with Skype using Skype4Com for various reasons. They came to me recently asking if I had any recommendations for a better platform. (They knew Skype was a temporary hack but didn't expect it to die this fast) Basically they need a white-labeled, web-based video conference solution. They'd like centralized recording with…

TokBox is one of the leaders in this space: http://tokbox.com/

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#32

Post by Groxx » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 12:00 AM UTC

ancarda wrote: post #23

AYBABTME wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, I don't get why people care about it. It's closed source, shady, loaded with spam bots and the company treats customers terribly.

Network effect. All my friends and family use Skype and Facebook. It's difficult to avoid using them when people have picked them as their sole method of communication.

Very much so. I use it at work because we use it for interviews, since most people have it, and their voice and screen-share are more reliable (on nearly every system) than alternatives (which people never have installed anyway).

We universally hate it. We haven't found anything better :(

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#33

Post by vyrotek » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 12:20 AM UTC

thisiswrong wrote: post #30

nodata wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you want a service, and this is a product, but I'll mention it anyway: https://jitsi.org/ Not sure how integration would work.

I can highly recommend Jitsi over Skype. Jitsi also is snooping free and recommended for Video conferencing & VoIP on https://prism-break.org/

Unfortunately what I've found is that anything that claims "high security" or P2P technology means that they don't support the ability to record all broadcasts on a central server. I understand and appreciate where those products are coming from, but education institutions have policies that require all communications to be reviewed and audited.

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#34

Post by sahaskatta » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 12:22 AM UTC

vyrotek wrote: post #20

A company I used to work for is panicking over this. One of their core products had an integration with Skype using Skype4Com for various reasons. They came to me recently asking if I had any recommendations for a better platform. (They knew Skype was a temporary hack but didn't expect it to die this fast) Basically they need a white-labeled, web-based video conference solution. They'd like centralized recording with…

I'd checkout https://layer.com

I haven't tried it out personally, but I've heard good things.

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#35

Post by jka » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 12:34 AM UTC

pradn wrote: post #28

davexunit wrote: post #26

Yet another example of what happens when you depend upon proprietary software. The developers that are upset should have known better.

It's a little ridiculous to assert that no one should rely on proprietary software. Are all the folks writing Windows applications or PlayStation games idiots? A cautious approach toward relying on an API that's not central to another company's business is the key.

As a counter-point, the Facebook APIs are pretty crucial to Facebook's business (third party developers and application functionality for users), but they've seen plenty of instability and breaking changes in the past, many of which cause real problems for businesses.

If you're aiming for the user-facing side of your business to be self-reliant, under your own governance, and at the mercy of your market rather than of your partners, then it can and does make sense to look at self-hosting open source services and components; you pay a premium for the hosting, but you know that you opt-in to upstream changes on your own timescale, and you can fix issues yourself.

In reality it is indeed tricky to be so disciplined, and if some suppliers provide very high-uptime services with reasonable failure modes (e.g. Google Analytics), then it seems fair to go that route - but on the flip-side, data really is money nowadays, and user privacy may be important if you care about such things, so even these decisions can be questionable.

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#36

Post by vyrotek » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 12:44 AM UTC

tomtheengineer wrote: post #29

vyrotek wrote: post #20

A company I used to work for is panicking over this. One of their core products had an integration with Skype using Skype4Com for various reasons. They came to me recently asking if I had any recommendations for a better platform. (They knew Skype was a temporary hack but didn't expect it to die this fast) Basically they need a white-labeled, web-based video conference solution. They'd like centralized recording with…

At vLine, we provide a WebRTC-based cloud solution: https://vline.com . We're still working on some of the features you mentioned (recording), but would be happy to chat with them to see what we can do.

Thanks! I'll send them your way. A lot of service proiders seem to be in the same boat. They're all "working" on recording and say they get many requests for it. This company has reviewed dozens of services which were all very close to being what they want minus the recording feature. If you were able to deliver on that you would have a significant advantage over many other competitors.

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#37

Post by vyrotek » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 12:50 AM UTC

davexunit wrote: post #26

Yet another example of what happens when you depend upon proprietary software. The developers that are upset should have known better.

How is depending on proprietary software any different than consuming an API such as Stripe which could disappear tomorrow too?

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#38

Post by shanselman » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 1:39 AM UTC

vyrotek wrote: post #20

A company I used to work for is panicking over this. One of their core products had an integration with Skype using Skype4Com for various reasons. They came to me recently asking if I had any recommendations for a better platform. (They knew Skype was a temporary hack but didn't expect it to die this fast) Basically they need a white-labeled, web-based video conference solution. They'd like centralized recording with…

There's other, newer Skype APIs, I believe. CallBurner already announced they would still work, using another API.

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#39

Post by eriksank » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 2:02 AM UTC

vyrotek wrote: post #37

davexunit wrote: post #26

Yet another example of what happens when you depend upon proprietary software. The developers that are upset should have known better.

How is depending on proprietary software any different than consuming an API such as Stripe which could disappear tomorrow too?

If you move from Stripe to another payment gateway, you will not lose all your users. Microsoft has monopoly access control to the other users, who are needed to make your skype extension useful to the user using your extension. That is why Microsoft control over such user directory is unacceptable.

Re: Microsoft to retire Skype Desktop API

#40

Post by telecuda » Sun, Nov 03, 2013, 2:09 AM UTC

This is really screwing us up and will force us to cancel paid subscriptions prematurely. There was no outreach to the developer community to even find out what interesting and/or thriving applications are relying on the API - just an expiration date. I understand a new architecture for mobile is most important right now, but it's at the expense of pissing off a loyal group of Skype developers who could help further drive the platform's success.