Good timing microsoft, specially now that we have this for free for an year already using google hangouts
Skype group video calling becomes free
161–169 of 169 posts
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#162Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.
I prefer Skype since although it has always been a huge CPU hog, its UI is perfect for beginners (i.e. family) and in the decade I've used it, I've never once been cross-sold some pointless feature the parent company are currently trying to promote. Note Hangouts itself once was Gtalk, which I was a user of, prior to the first cattle herding on to Google+. Now Gundotra is out the door, there is no telling into which…
On Windows, if Internet Explorer is not your default browser (or possibly if Chrome is your default browser, not sure), Skype uses far more CPU.
Sounds weird, but it definitely made a difference for me.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I too would be interested in knowing where you found that. It has a beautiful interface and solves my #1 annoyance with google hangouts which is: "Where do I go to start one?". Every time I try to use Hangouts I invite a friend but they never get the invite or the other way around and we spend 5min getting it setup when we could have used Skype and had zero issues. Trust me I am all for getting off Skype but hangouts…
You have always been able to just visit https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/ to directly open a new empty hangout. This is equivalent to clicking "New Video Hangout" in the G+ sidebar. Also, you can give anyone a direct link to any hangout (e.g. via email or text).
Sorry I just got around to this comment. Thank you for the information!
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#164I feel like this was the only thing on the premium feature list that even mattered. Does skype even generate revenue?
Ironically I just signed up for premium this month in order to get group chat.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Both Microsoft and Google should offer small businesses packaged services where you bring your own internet service, then buy telephone plus email using your own domain name from them for a flat fee. Microsoft is focusing on the enterprise, because that's where the money is. For example, CERN is using Microsoft Lync as an IP PBX, using the Polycom CX300. It looks like a desk telephone and works like a desk telephon…
won't be costing Microsoft a lot of money in support calls I think you've got it backwards, there's nothing Microsoft loves more then support calls because that's where their real cash cow is: charging enterprise monstrous yearly support fees.
In other words, enterprise support contracts are making Microsoft money -- not costing it money.
Consumers and small businesses aren't nearly as willing to open their wallets for support. The best customer is one who pays the annual fee and never calls in for support.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#166I hope open protocols will catch up already. XMPP/Jingle has user side multiplexing for a while (MUJI), but it requires decent bandwidth. It's a deferred XEP for some reason though. Also, most clients lack support for it. Server side multiplexing wasn't standardized for some reason, so XMPP servers didn't come up with anything common so far. Skype remains just another proprietary walled garden communication network w…
What do you think of COLIBRI[1]? Does it seem like it could address this problem adequately? Does it have a chance of getting traction beyond just Jitsi? [1] https://jitsi.org/colibri/
That's interesting, and it's about server side multiplexing. But I have no clue why it's not accepted as official XEP yet. In general, the progress of XMPP standards seems very slow.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I beg to differ. Nowadays Skype is always inquiring people to convert their account to a Microsoft Account! The "Metro"/"Modern" version of Skype for Windows 8 even requires a Microsoft account.
Well, following that logic, Facebook owns thousands of web sites because they require FB account to login. It seems obvious to us, but we are an exception. Most of the people just don't care.
The vast majority of those people had a facebook account anyway. Using Skype to push Microsoft accounts gets people to create MS accounts that they didn't have. I imagine there's a selected-by-default checkbox in that process along the lines of "Send me exciting news an announcements about Microsoft products!"
Soon to be followed with "HEY BUDDY, DID YOU KNOW OFFICE 365 WORKS ON ALL YOUR DEVICES? AND IT'S 10% OFF!"
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I too would be interested in knowing where you found that. It has a beautiful interface and solves my #1 annoyance with google hangouts which is: "Where do I go to start one?". Every time I try to use Hangouts I invite a friend but they never get the invite or the other way around and we spend 5min getting it setup when we could have used Skype and had zero issues. Trust me I am all for getting off Skype but hangouts…
You have always been able to just visit https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/ to directly open a new empty hangout. This is equivalent to clicking "New Video Hangout" in the G+ sidebar. Also, you can give anyone a direct link to any hangout (e.g. via email or text).
Since I use multiple Google Apps accounts and a personal Gmail account, this link works best for me (works for all Google services, just change the continue):
https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?continue=https://pl...
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely. I am astonished that Google people genuinely don't understand the things that are off-putting about Google+. I've never even tried Hangouts because of the G+ requirement. I suppose if I had to, I'd create a one-off account for the purpose.
well to be fair, plenty of google employees are/have-been fully aware of (and vocal about) the various problems with forced G+ integrations on users. It's just that those employees haven't had any power to change those decisions. With the recent changes in leadership, things may change.
This may be true, but it is not the POV implied in OP's question.