Skype is better, but still problematic | Hacker News Reader

Skype is better, but still problematic

steverrobbins.com

47 pointscrunchiebones29 comments

I had to use the so called "skype for entreprise". If you think skype went down, wait to try it, it's everything you ever dreaded, and more. It should be the example in wikipedia for the article "failure".

With the exploding number of chat apps, individual past, preferences and technical level I gave up on the whole rich client thing.

With all my customers I now use https://appear.in

It doesn't have great noise cancellation, the chat sucks and you can't send files.

But it works without any setup and little technical knowledge from my customers. They go to the address, click "accept" a bunch of times, and we see each others. We can even share screens.

Just advised a friend the other day to use it in place of skype- my update doesn't install and she couldn't log in. Appear.in works perfectly, dead simple.

Do you mean "Skype for Business?" That is Microsoft Lync rebranded to take advantage of Skype's better name recognition. Skype and Skype for Business share nothing but a name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_for_Business

Skype for business is finally going away, though slowly, to be replaced by Teams.

But judging from some error messages I’ve seen, it looks like the voice capabilities in teams are still just embedded Lync/Skype. Might be wrong.

If you spy on the API calls Microsoft Teams makes, you will see several Skype-branded domains involved in the overall process. It's likely they are still relying significantly on Skype back-end technology.

An Electron app. Wohoo!

Skype has gotten worse from the last time I had used (4-5 years ago). Recently, I had to use it for interviews.

So, on the day of interview, I usually check if everything is working fine or not. I opened Skype, it promoted me to update it. I usually ignore this but this time, there was no update later. So, I was forced to update. Now, I could not go past login screen whatsoever. I tried different online methods, nothing worked. Finally, I had to use Skype Web, which worked fine.(relief)

May be they are forcing update due to security issues but in case of emergency, I should have an option to switch to older version. I do not know. And yeah, Skype Web is there. That's the only hope.

I had the exact same problem once, update rendered Skype completely unusable until I could locate a previous version to reinstall.

Interesting that the whole upgrade friction happens to those of us who use certain software sparingly. Whether it is Skype or Windows or whatever, it perhaps makes you want to use them even less.

This appears to be a Microsoft strategy and is why I know longer use my Xbox One. I thought I'd also use it as a Blu-Ray player, but it would ruined too many movie nights with forced updates. It's a self-reinforcing cycle as well, because the forced updates caused me to use it less, which meant the promise of even more time spent updating the next time I wanted to use it. I haven't turned it on in two years. I should probably sell it.

...and of course, Skype for "Web" only works in Chrome or Edge - so better keep a spare browser around for the fallback web version of the awful chat/VoIP client.

Is it any wonder Slack is dominating business chat? If they figure out an elegant way to get guests a one-time call with an org from the web for interviews or whatever they're in perfect shape.

I know that's not really the solution to the problem but it works fine for me after spoofing the user agent to something chrome would send.

The incompatibility is - at least for now - a lie.

Until Chrome has sufficiently abused its monopoly.

I loved Skype and by necessity currently use it all day every day. They constantly remove features I use with every update. Is it that hard to leave in what works?

Is there any good open source solution?

https://riot.im has reached 1.0 and supports all the same features - except phones (Can be done with SIP integration).

Riot UI is (still) confusing for new users.

https://wire.com is also open source but much simpler.

But Wire is not a matrix client, is it?

If it is, they hide it well.

Correct, Wire is unrelated to Matrix/Riot. They were listing Wire as another option.

There are also https://meet.jit.si and https://jami.net/.

Without a server of some type available nothing can be entirely reliable on the severely broken internet we have to deal with today. Open source projects only provide the software. There has to be someone out there to provide money for the bandwidth/server.

The current SIP clients try pretty hard to do things right in spite of the brokenness. You could try:

* https://www.linphone.org/

Mumble works well with very cheap and available servers but audio only.

If you want something really minimal and capable:

* http://www.creytiv.com/baresip.html

I always thought, and still do, of Skype being the "If a human on this planet could design a user interface and experience the exact opposite of easy, efficient and friendly." it would be it. I almost feel like the developers are playing a trick on me every time I open the app.

Skype is total absolute dog shit.

Nothing about it has been better, ever, since around 2005.

What an absolute clusterfuck. I really don't think it could be managed worse - if you handed Skype management to a bunch of untrained 13 year olds, it would, in all likelihood, evolve into a better product than it has been at any point between 2008 and now.

And to clarify, this applies to both Skype for Business and the personal Skype.

Not to mention the tight grip MS is having on the accounts, trying to link everything to Live, plus disabling asccounts for "violation of TOS"and forcing you to provide a cell phone number in order to re enable the account (And no way to find out what exact part of the TOS you broke: Believe me, I tried).

I've had a Skype acc for 10+ years; I've been holding back updating the app because the new versions are a total and utterly crap. Last time I opened it the dialog box changed to an "Update now" only button, so I left it there.

My company changed from a Skype only (With paid accounts) communication based model to Slack + GoToMeeting when needed.

I'd really like to know how much money they stopped making in the recent years.

Skype for Business doesn't even have a Linux client, while the "normal" Skype Linux client isn't great but works reasonably decently. But Skype for Business is an utter disgrace.

I really like https://web.skype.com, nothing to install or update and it's got a lot of features, plus it runs under Ublock's purview and it inlines YouTube videos.

But I see a banner often saying they've replaced it with something Chrome-specific. :(

> nothing to install or update

That's not a feature. That's how you have no control at all.

Right, but then they also have no visibility into what's installed or running on my computer, and it's not like I had much control over installed versions they just obsolete w/e API they want on whatever schedule they want to force updates.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com