Microsoft is killing Skype • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#391

Post by Denvercoder9 » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

SR2Z wrote: post #253

OskarS wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack is primarily a business tool, and for a business tool $10/user/month is extremely reasonable for the value (perceived or real) it brings. The company has to make money, and you do that by charging for your products and services, and that price is not exorbitant.

The really egregious thing is that when businesses pay for Slack, it remains unindexed and they just change the retention to 1yr. Nothing is as frustrating as looking for an old conversation referenced in a doc and being smugly told by some corporate dick that Slack isn't for documentation and if it were important info, clearly someone should have saved it. Never mind who, it should just magically happen. The gap bet…

> The really egregious thing is that when businesses pay for Slack, it remains unindexed and they just change the retention to 1yr.

That doesn't track with my experience as a user at all. Almost every day I do a search that returns results older than a year.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#392

Post by bombcar » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

fiverz wrote: post #188

lmz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Skype for Business isn't even Skype. Wasn't it just a rebranding of MS Lync?

Lync because Skype for Business, yes.

Which became Teams (somewhat).

All the telephony side of Teams is very clearly Lync in a trench coat.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#393

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:34 PM UTC

SR2Z wrote: post #253

OskarS wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slack is primarily a business tool, and for a business tool $10/user/month is extremely reasonable for the value (perceived or real) it brings. The company has to make money, and you do that by charging for your products and services, and that price is not exorbitant.

The really egregious thing is that when businesses pay for Slack, it remains unindexed and they just change the retention to 1yr. Nothing is as frustrating as looking for an old conversation referenced in a doc and being smugly told by some corporate dick that Slack isn't for documentation and if it were important info, clearly someone should have saved it. Never mind who, it should just magically happen. The gap bet…

If it's important enough to mention in a document then the person creating the document should preserve a copy of what is clearly ephemeral information. It's just as daft was referencing emails in a document.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#394

Post by igorguerrero » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:35 PM UTC

Oh man I actually use it to get a US phone number... What's a better alternative for this? I like skype cause you can request a new one every time you wanted.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#395

Post by bsimpson » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:35 PM UTC

freetime2 wrote: post #39

AnonC wrote: post #7

Tangential: I have a U.S. Skype Number (i.e., a real phone number offered by the Skype service) that's mainly used to receive and make (occasional) calls from/to a bank and to receive SMS occasionally. The cost is about $40 a year. With Skype Number not available for purchase since December and the Skype platform (including Skype Number) going away soon, what are some simple, good (and preferably cheaper) alternative…

I was using Google Voice for a while, which is nice because it is free and never had any issues receiving SMS. A US phone number is required to activate, so I used a US relative's phone number to activate and then just disabled all the forwarding features so calls and SMS would never be forwarded to that number. Unfortunately, I went so long without actually using it that they took my number away (my fault because th…

I've used Google Voice as my primary number since 2010.

It mostly works flawlessly. It's cool that you can use wifi calling when abroad and the POTS network domestically, all transparently from the POV of the person calling you.

I have noticed that some services (Square, Venmo, and Ticketmaster come to mind) don't like sending 2FA texts to VoIP numbers. I end up needing to use whatever SIM I have at the time or a relative's number for those, and I'm low key anxious I'll be locked out of my account someday.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#396

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

basisword wrote: post #268

This is such great news. I had to communicate with clients and in some European countries Skype is expected. It's used for group instant messaging and it is awful compared to Slack/Teams. These users absolutely refuse to move off it so glad to hear they will have no choice. Skype sucked 10 years ago. With the vast array of better options available it sucks immeasurably more now.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#397

Post by bombcar » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

high_na_euv wrote: post #148

kleiba wrote: post #130

Teams is a heavyweight behemoth with awful UX while Skype orginally had a very lightweight feel to it. Of course, Microsoft had to kill that through various UI "improvements". Also, Skype has an official Linux client. Instead of developing Teams (NIH at its best), they could have carefully developed Skype into a similar platform. But I'm not sure a giant like Microsoft is capable of something like this. But at least…

>NIH at its best How do you know? Teams feel totally different from Skype, from design perspective

Teams is just Skype for Business which was just rebranded Lync.

They never were at all related to Skype which was based around p2p phone calls, not group chats or businesses.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#398

Post by hermitcrab » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

Skype was great, until M$ bought it, and then it was all downhill. For some reason they removed the ability to have a personalised answerphone message. Why?

Any suggestions for an equivalent VOIP service? Something simple and cheap so I can have a phone number on my website that rings on my computer + has an answerphone for missed calls.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#399

Post by orev » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

Kapura wrote: post #329

Absolutely wild that the entire world got locked inside their homes and everybody became a remote worker and that wasn't enough for Skype or Teams to get used. Embarrassing! and this is the end result.

They forgot Skype existed and everyone used Zoom. Then Microsoft scrambled and used their monopoly power in Windows to force Teams on everyone. Teams was not a thing until at least half a year into the pandemic.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#400

Post by ein0p » Fri, Feb 28, 2025, 5:40 PM UTC

Seems unwise. I'd at least try to sell it instead. It's a very popular brand still. You don't just "kill" things like that - brands are very difficult to build.