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Microsoft is killing Skype

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Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#451

Post by rwky »

quitit wrote: post #444

Microsoft has sent out this email: Dear Skype user, In order to streamline our consumer communications offerings, we will be retiring Skype in May 2025. As part of this change, we want to keep you informed about important updates to your Skype paid services and how these changes may affect you. Please read on for detailed information about the updates and what they mean for your services. Subscriptions & Automatic To…

Thanks for this I've not received the email yet. This bit is irritating

>To port your Skype Number, please contact your new provider directly. Learn more

Anyone got any recommendations on who to port to?

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#452

Post by tshaddox »

drooopy wrote: post #101

The way Microsoft and Skype missed their opportunity during the pandemic to maintain or even expand their lead in video conferencing, while allowing a complete unknown (outside of the corporate world, at least) like Zoom to become the dominant platform, should be studied in business schools. The term 'Skype' is so synonymous with video calling that, based on personal experience, it is still used in place of FaceTime…

Didn't Microsoft Teams soundly defeat Zoom, Slack, and all the others? I was under the impression that Teams has at least an order of magnitude more active users than any competitor.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#453

Post by smallerfish »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #401
Lammy wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Microsoft killed it the moment when they made everything move through central servers before everyone had good network connection, everywhere. It was P2P before. Story in two headlines: - “NSA offering 'billions' for Skype eavesdrop solution” https://www.theregister.com/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_f... (2009) - “Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion. Why, Exactly?” https://www.wired.com/2011/05/microsoft…

Mass surveillance was easier when anyone, including the NSA, could run a supernode. Microsoft had to run its own supernodes because usage changed from most people running Skype on desktops, which could be supernodes, to most people running Skype on phones, which can't. At that point, it hardly makes sense to push new supernode functionality for multiparty video calls and other optimizations to end users to handle a s…

> if all you need is a 1-1 call without NAT traversal.

That part of your sentence is doing a lot of work. It has to be as easy as clicking on a contact for oldsters.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#454

Post by theultdev »

sznio wrote: post #441
bayindirh wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Microsoft killed it the moment when they made everything move through central servers before everyone had good network connection, everywhere. It was P2P before. It was slow, laggy and unstable for most of the time. Also, they didn't invest in the transportation codecs much. After it's marred, they didn't try to mend it much, and when it started to work well due to better bandwidth, they didn't push it back a…

Part of it was that performance was abysmal. Everyone jumped to Discord (an electron app!) when it released, because it performed better.

From the circles I was in, everyone jumped from Skype / Mumble / Teamspeak because of D/DoS attacks after having their ip exposed.

It happened all the time because booters were so popular and widely available, costing about $5/mo via paypal.

People were willing to put up with more delay (over p2p) to prevent having to trust each person that joins the TS.

Skype transitioned away from p2p because mobile phones were not very powerful and they needed a lot of supernodes.

First desktop apps were the supernodes, then it turned into centralized servers entirely.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#455

Post by dabinat »

I feel like I’m one of the few people still using Skype. I’m using the feature where you can rent an international local phone number and people can call you on that number and it forwards to your phone (my family live abroad).

I’ve been looking and I’m struggling to find services with this feature that aren’t 3x+ the price. Skype seems to be unique in that it’s aimed at consumers and most of those other services seem to be aimed at businesses (that could be a factor in why it failed).

Can anyone make any recommendations?

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#456

Post by TiredOfLife »

legitster wrote: post #270

Skype is the epitome of technical debt. Millions of lines of code for a service that isn't technically difficult to provide anymore. When I was at Microsoft, I was told working on Skype was about as popular as being sent to a gulag. The value of the brand is so strong, I am surprised they never launched a "2.0" version built from scratch and without all the vestigial tails.

They did launch a from scratch electron crap at least once. That version didn't migrate settings/account. Had to help at least 3 different people who suddenly lost access to their contacts.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#457

Post by stackskipton »

delecti wrote: post #231
OvbiousError wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost everything I do for work uses teams, so I can't say MS missed any boats. It's spectacular how pervasive teams is given how universally reviled it is. I'd personally switch back to slack in a heartbeat for instance.

At my job we use Teams, but basically just for meetings (and the associated chat), and it works really well. About the only complaint I could make is that it occasionally guesses the wrong audio devices, but it's fairly easy to change them. I didn't understand all the hate until a few groups tried pushing the actual "teams" inside "Teams", and goddamn they are bad . They're an awkward and confusing mashup of chat roo…

That's because "Teams" inside Teams are not part of Teams, it's tied to Sharepoint/Exchange and thus poorly integrated.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#458

Post by stackskipton »

UltraSane wrote: post #435
delecti wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my job we use Teams, but basically just for meetings (and the associated chat), and it works really well. About the only complaint I could make is that it occasionally guesses the wrong audio devices, but it's fairly easy to change them. I didn't understand all the hate until a few groups tried pushing the actual "teams" inside "Teams", and goddamn they are bad . They're an awkward and confusing mashup of chat roo…

At a company I worked at someone saved some important data in Teams and left the company and I was tasked with trying to export it but it turns out it would have taken significant time scripting the API to extract all the data. They said forget it and just left it in the Teams and made sure not to delete her account.

It's in her OneDrive most likely, go pluck it out of there.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#459

Post by zamadatix »

dabinat wrote: post #455

I feel like I’m one of the few people still using Skype. I’m using the feature where you can rent an international local phone number and people can call you on that number and it forwards to your phone (my family live abroad). I’ve been looking and I’m struggling to find services with this feature that aren’t 3x+ the price. Skype seems to be unique in that it’s aimed at consumers and most of those other services see…

I don't have any recommendations. I used to have a number like this but it seems anything aimed at being cheap and for individuals ends up attracting a bunch of nefarious use for the volume of legitimate use which ends up making the service not worth running for the provider. As such, I gave up trying to find one to stick with.

Re: Microsoft is killing Skype

#460

Post by Scoundreller »

hedgehog wrote: post #442
Scoundreller wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even when eBay thought they bought it, apparently they didn’t buy all of it: https://www.theregister.com/2009/11/06/ebay_skype/ https://www.hugheshubbard.com/news/the-best-laid-m-a-plans-h...

Oh it gets better. Apparently some of the stuff they didn't get dated back to Kazaa. Some of the Skype founders were under indictment and traveling incognito while they raised money for the new company.

Makes sense that the SuperPeers core from Kazaa was re-used in Skype.
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