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New Skype Update Is Horrible

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Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#21

Post by ocdtrekkie »

derefr wrote: post #18

Question: does Skype for Business (nee Lync) mirror these same UX changes as Skype makes them, or does it do its own thing? Because I'm guessing this is just Microsoft further differentiating their product categories: today's Skype is for consumers (ala Facebook Messenger), so it gets "cute" features at the expense of the ability to use it for productivity; while Skype for Business continues to be about efficient col…

Skype for Business (a.k.a. Lync), AFAICT, still has absolutely nothing in common whatsoever with Skype. Except for the name.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#22

Post by Arathorn »

Meekro wrote: post #10

What could I switch to (on both Mac and PC) that would give me better video chat functionality? Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for: 1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US). 2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good. 3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do. 4. IM-like client that supports text, v…

For the open source decentralised option: the Riot.im Matrix client (disclaimer, i work on it)

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#23

Post by tsukaisute »

CSDude wrote: post #7

I have witnessed Skype to go from almost perfect video & chat communicator to absolute crap over almost 10 years, and I feel very sad that it has come to rip off Snapchat. There is no alternative like the old Skype now in the desktop.

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 usability and all the "extras", perhaps because they are not playing catch-up in the market.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#24

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #9
komali2 wrote: post #5

Has skype ever been good? For as long as I can remember it was a necessary evil until we finally managed to replace it with Hangouts and the like.

...Has Hangouts ever been good? Like, I totally get complaining about Skype. The P2P stuff caused it to be kinda wonky. But your choice for "better" is Hangouts? Between the five or six alternative Google chat offerings, the attempts to merge it with the dialer and SMS apps, the cutting out of the online/offline statuses. Google Talk was great though, back in the day.

Five or six Google chat offerings? There's one more now, Hangouts video chat is becoming "meet".

https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/9/14864552/google-hangouts-c...

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/28/google-quietly-launches-me...

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#26

Post by pier25 »

komali2 wrote: post #5

Has skype ever been good? For as long as I can remember it was a necessary evil until we finally managed to replace it with Hangouts and the like.

In our case we still use Skype. It's the only native cross platform app that offers group calls and screen share for free.

I'd gladly use Slack, but group calls and screen share is a paid add on.

Hangouts has always had terrible performance in my experience.

Facetime works nice for one to one, but a lot of people don't have Macs, and again no group calls or screen share.

I liked Fuze, but then they pivoted to enterprise paid clients only.

Bluejeans is paid only and via Facebook IIRC.

What else is there?

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#27

Post by jeltz »

So it is not just us Linux users which will be hit by a horrible Skype upgrade? I run the by now ancient 4.3.0.37 (they never bothered to port Skype 5.0 an later to Linux) which they will kill off by the end of the month in a favor for their half-assed beta client which is still missing many of the features which Skype 4.3 had.

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#28

Post by projectramo »

Maybe mine is a lonely voice but I like Skype because:

1. It works. Every other video chat platform I have tried is simply unreliable and crashes. (Skype does so but with far less frequency).

2. Facetime is more reliable, true, but it is the only one and does not allow for group chat.

(I have thrown down the gauntlet, and I realize I risk major downvoting for making such a controversial statement, but I cannot sit in silence anymore).

Re: New Skype Update Is Horrible

#30

Post by lucideer »

Meekro wrote: post #10

What could I switch to (on both Mac and PC) that would give me better video chat functionality? Edit: Just to clarify, here's what I'm looking for: 1. Free plan; available everywhere in the world (I have family outside the US). 2. Both Mac and PC clients that are actually good. 3. Video chat quality (including noise filtering and such) that matches or exceeds what Skype can do. 4. IM-like client that supports text, v…

I've used Jitsi a few times without issue, but not sure about mobile clients.
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