I feel like this was the only thing on the premium feature list that even mattered. Does skype even generate revenue?
Maybe group screen sharing is still limited to just premium subscribers?
Nope, they removed the premium option altogether.
Skype group video calling becomes free
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Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#42Nice! Paying a premium for this was a bummer, but it does still work better than all of Skype's competitors, in my opinion. The primary problem of Hangouts and whatever else is out there is audio echo. I don't know if that problem is simply unsolvable in Flash or what, but Skype has handled it much better. All you need is one person on your Hangout call who doesn't mute their mic and the experience is a disaster, unf…
>audio echo
That's a difference in the audio algorithms used. Skype uses SILK while I believe that Google Hangouts uses Opus. SILK and Opus are closely related however. I would assume that Skype didn't allow all their fancy echo-cancellation tweaks to be open-sourced so it's a little better in the Skype implementation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILK#Opus
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#43Finally! 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 silo existing G+ users will be cattle-herded next. Hangouts might be technically superior (although I personally think Skype's rate-adaptive video is second to none), but the treatment of users by its parent company, and their endless thirst for personal data keeps me far away.
Skype just works, just like it has for the past decade, and just like I expect it will continue to in the coming years. I'd place a small wager on Hangouts being long dead, or at the very least rebranded before then
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#44I feel like this was the only thing on the premium feature list that even mattered. Does skype even generate revenue?
> Does skype even generate revenue?
Even if not, the NSA probably wouldn't let Microsoft shut Skype down
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#45I feel like this was the only thing on the premium feature list that even mattered. Does skype even generate revenue?
Skype pulls in a lot of revenue in the OCS/Lync product set. Companies want still largely want to be able to IM MSN, Yahoo, Skype, and AOL users and they're the only ones that have access to all those user groups. They also leverage B2C video/calls to Skype users.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#46Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.
funny, because I don't know anyone who likes skype over G+
I prefer G+, but the onboarding - actually getting disparate folks easily invited and notified has been inscrutably hard. Part of the prob is that I have multiple gmail accts and address books as do the folks I'm inviting, but another prob seems to be the less than ideal invite workflow. When Goog gets calendars, gmail, docs and hangouts well integrated, Skype will have a serious threat on its hands.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#47Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.
G+'s video quality was miles ahead of Skype's. Heck, even FaceTime's video quality was better.
>> "Heck, even FaceTime's video quality was better."
I've noticed this too. For a while I was on a really poor internet connection and on Skype calls video just didn't work. However FaceTime was practically flawless on the same connection.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#48That title/URL is bugging me, I was thinking in a more cynical world it may read something like: "skype-is-concerned-of-competition-and-matches-features" About the spying, I feel sorry for any poor sucker watching my life! :¬D All that effort for such little excitement.
I am pretty sure, if I had access to your skype chat/camera I would find enough information to extort you. There is one moment, or one line of text or one picture that you don't want to escape your mind.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#49Finally! I don't know anyone who likes G+ over Skype, but we all use it for the group video features.
I'm the CEO of a small remote-working startup with 5 employees. I pay $20/mo for Skype since some of people I meet with only use that and I need the group screen sharing feature. Whenever I have a Skype meeting, I'm nervous, because 50% of the time video or screen sharing won't work. Once I get them to switch to Hangouts there's no problems, ever. Are you telling me that you experience the opposite? If so, that's ver…
I feel you.
I used to use skype for communication with my family, but grew tired of it not working properly.
My parents never were able to use properly Hangout because it is too counter-intuitive for them (log on gmail - oops forgot my password, find the chat bottom left window, "Why do you make me go to my emails to chat with you, son?").
Too bad because the few times I was able to connect with them, it was such a better experience than Skype.
I bought an iPad to my mom for Christmas and facetime with them now. It's the best I've found - even easier for them to use than Skype. They call me, I call them, there no confusion anymore.
No idea about the group chat, but I will agree on Skype working really badly (despite their 10+ years of experience) compared to newer solutions as hangout and facetime.
Re: Skype group video calling becomes free
#50Finally! 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…
For some reason, G+ hangouts eat a lot more CPU for me than Skype does.