Consumers Turn Against Skype Since Microsoft Acquisition

DooKey

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Skype was once one of the most popular if not the most popular calling service on the internet. Things changed when Microsoft acquired them for $8.5B in 2011 and then proceeded to make Skype a business product that they now bundle with Office 365 and try to steal customers from Cisco. Many former users of Skype just don't like how it works, looks, or performs. So now that's it's all said and done Skype just isn't that attractive to the masses anymore and once loyal users are finding better options. This is just one more case of Microsoft grabbing up a good product and then putting the Microsoft stink all over it. Maybe it will regain acceptance or maybe it won't, however, only time will tell if this once ubiquitous product makes a big comeback.

But Microsoft has paid a price for prioritizing corporations over consumers. The former seek robust security, search and the ability to host town halls; the latter ease-of-use and decent call quality. Inevitably, the complexity of the corporate software crowds out the simplicity consumers prefer. While the company maintains two separate apps, the underlying technology is the same and it's built with workers in mind.
 
Once consumers have turned their nose up to a service, no amount of redesigns can save it. Case in point - myspace.
 
We transitioned last year to skype being our sole communication for work - it's a bit of a mess. while calls are fine, all the other features that came from Lync never cleanly integrated. Each version of Skype wastes more and more screen space which is the complete opposite of what a business app should do. Skype now dominates you monitor real estate rather then cleanly sits off to the side, tons of wasted white space you can't control. users of consumer skype can't video call with Skype for business people... two different platforms.
 
This also has less to do with Skype and instead the rise of other platforms, Zoom being one, Adobe Connect is doing some good stuff and really Cisco is an expensive hot mess that is not hard to convince people to switch from when offered an alternative, they were some pretty low hanging fruit.
 
Had to doublecheck that this wasn't a necro thread. This was news in like 2012.

If you want to laugh yourself batty check out the UWP version in the windows 10 store. It's sarcastically devoid of functionality compared to the desktop version.
 
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Once consumers have turned their nose up to a service, no amount of redesigns can save it. Case in point - myspace.

Not sure if serious. Redesigns and re-brands are powerful weapons.
Not only do they bring purpose to a worker's life, but also transform slaving energy into raw cash. Not everyone has the sway to convince the elders to commit resources to the ritual, though. And not every attempt to please the plebs pays off. Sometimes sheep just don't know what's best for them.

People are cruel, though. Some just love beating horses to death and then some. It's not about the money. I seen it. Sick bastards.
 
I use Skype for business at work for instant messaging and it works fine (I don’t use video). However, at home they keep breaking one feature or another. At one point they completely broke video chat on the Skype on Xbox where it didn’t work at all and they removed all Kinect voice commands from it. I know the PC version for Windows 10 eventually just stops receiving messages because I see the messages on my phone or on Outlook.com, but nothing on the app.

I don’t know how they went from a perfectly functional app to something that doesn’t work on and off. They haven’t really addded any features besides the new UI.
 
If you want to laugh yourself batty check out the UWP version in the windows 10 store. It's sarcastically devoid of functionality compared to the desktop version.

I use it everyday for voice calls and it works great for that purpose.
 
We use both Skype and Jabber at work. Jabber is CRAP compared to Skype for Business. No Outlook integration. For some reason, even though I don;t have a dedicated phone, it (Jabber) insists on loading the phone stuff and not just the IM part. DESPITE checking the boxes that say to NOT load phone support. Every once in a while, the Jabber client will stop letting me send messages - hitting enter simply moves to a new lien insteadof sendign the message. Only fix is to completely exit and restart Jabber. Skype client NEVER does this.
 
If I hadn't seen personally how much worse Skype got over the last several forced releases, I would probably be surprised. It takes real effort to take something that's usable with quirks and turn it into such a steaming pile of garbage.

It's not bad. However, if you've used it over the years and pre-Microsoft, it really has gotten a lot worse than it was. We use it at work, and it's not horrible. Just basic chat and video.

If Microsoft decides to lose focus on a product, it can go downhill real fast. They need to keep a strong focus on something, otherwise it just goes to shit. They may still support it and make new features, but they just don't have the backing they used to have with it.
 
It's cheaper than Cisco solutions for business and from what I've used it for business wise it's been really easy to use and adopt from an employee stand point.
 
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I've used pretty much every version of OCS, Lync, and now Skype for business (rebranded a few times) daily for about 10 years now. I find it works well for the most part. I've had issues with file transfers and occasionally desktop sharing will stop with some people (screen freezes).

That said... I have a pretty low opinion of the free public skype product. We used to use it for gaming, but these days most games have built in voip clients or people have moved to alternative gaming voice clients. The microsoft account changeover completely lost my inlaws and they just use facebook for video chats now. With WebRTC and literally voip/video clients everywhere I think skype lost most of it's reason for being.
 
i think the honest truth is:
a. you now use skype primarily at work
b. in the past it was utilized for alot of international calls with family

however:
a. its now 2018.. people use google duo or iphone's facetime to make these calls or even facebook... a majority of which are "personal" or family calls


the niche market for business use is still there but even that has alternatives.
 
Skype for Business is so fucking horrible. We recently converted to o365 so my Skype personal users had to switch to the For Business product. It's so horrible.
 
Here's a fun one: MSN Messenger was bigger outside the US. Then MS bought Skype, abandoned Messenger users and lost dominance, shedding users to other platforms.

Typical for the Blamer Retard Era.
This is exactly it. They abandoned Messenger which was a decent instant messenger, and merged it into skype. People who liked messenger hate skype. To make matters worse the low bandwidth video chat that was in messenger was abandoned as well which was also preferred by many for that fact. They've hardly done a thing to improve it since they did the merge.
 
Skype for Business is so fucking horrible. We recently converted to o365 so my Skype personal users had to switch to the For Business product. It's so horrible.

Not our experience. We routinely host 50+ vid calls and the enterprise loves it compared to more costly alternatives. I don't see any actual explanation why it was horrible.
 
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Not our experience. We routinely host 50+ vid calls and the enterprise loves it compared to more costly alternatives. I don't see any actual explanation why it was horrible.

Audio quality issues.
Image quality issues in screensharing.
Outage issues.

In conjuction with mobile app, desktop and teams the message arrive at one device\service and not all.
Screenshot sharing struggle (saying this format is not supported, PNG!!!!) then paste paste paste and suddenly it works.
callmanager integration issues.


We went from Webex and Jabber which was cheaper for us and moved 16000 users and we're located in 100 or so countries and I am not pleased with skype... or o365, or anything in the new suite, our onprem exchange was better in many many ways but I see the cloud aspect but for me it feels like a very very very bad execution by microsoft.
 
Or maybe it was the fact Microsoft put in a back door to your conversations.

We use Skype for business (which replaced Lync) We noticed no side effects. It was a pretty much sideways transition. It works the way it's supposed to when our company VPN is working
 
Not our experience. We routinely host 50+ vid calls and the enterprise loves it compared to more costly alternatives. I don't see any actual explanation why it was horrible.

Adding contacts outside your organization is a shit show, and not the fun kind with strippers. The interface is horrible. The presence sometimes is "wonky". Never had these problems with "Skype for ordinary people". Also everything we want to do with meetings is some sort of per user per month fee. Want to share your screen? Well then you have to be a business premium user with Skype Plan 2. Oh, a call in number? E3 plus dial in feature.

Also, WTF is it that I have a conversation and then it just archives that conversation so when I come back all my previous conversation is gone? That's not how messaging is supposed to work.

And we won't even get started on "Teams". If Skype for Business is a shit show, Teams would be the Olympic equivalent of a shit show. A crap extravaganza if you will.
 
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Skype is pretty awful for video conferencing in our company, but that may be the fault of our IT folks :p
 
This also has less to do with Skype and instead the rise of other platforms, Zoom being one, .

Zoom especially. Zoom has taken off in Higher-Ed environments- that have Polycom, Cisco and G2M or WebEx clients.
 
Don't Skype Me: How Microsoft Turned Consumers Against a Beloved Brand

Now happening with Windows too! :p

Amended, using Skype for Business in our place too. It's alright. Seems to do what we need it for. Consumer Skype? What is that!?
 
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Zoom especially. Zoom has taken off in Higher-Ed environments- that have Polycom, Cisco and G2M or WebEx clients.
Yeah I am looking over quotes for Zoom and WebEx right now because we are moving off Adobe Connect and Skype and Zoom is the clear winner in both price and features. Skype nobody wants to use not because it doesn't work it really does work well but it is an image thing its just not liked, Adobe Connect just causes too many issues because well, ... Adobe but their work spaces feature is cool for collaboration but that can be replicated by incorporating other Google or Microsoft services into the call so no real loss but overall a lot easier for everybody involved. And since most of the attendees are not overly technically literate simpler is better.
 
Not our experience. We routinely host 50+ vid calls and the enterprise loves it compared to more costly alternatives. I don't see any actual explanation why it was horrible.

Adding contacts outside your organization is a shit show, and not the fun kind with strippers. The interface is horrible. The presence sometimes is "wonky". Never had these problems with "Skype for ordinary people". Also everything we want to do with meetings is some sort of per user per month fee. Want to share your screen? Well then you have to be a business premium user with Skype Plan 2. Oh, a call in number? E3 plus dial in feature.

Also, WTF is it that I have a conversation and then it just archives that conversation so when I come back all my previous conversation is gone? That's not how messaging is supposed to work.

And we won't even get started on "Teams". If Skype for Business is a shit show, Teams would be the Olympic equivalent of a shit show. A crap extravaganza if you will.

Here's the thing: "Skype for Business" is not Skype. It's still Lync. Go to task manager. Right click and "open file location." Surprise: it's Lync!

So who uses the real Skype? Nobody. I thought it would be great on xbox, the demos at launch with Kinect were awesome. What a great way to connect people! Then... sad panda.
 
Here's the thing: "Skype for Business" is not Skype. It's still Lync. Go to task manager. Right click and "open file location." Surprise: it's Lync!

So who uses the real Skype? Nobody. I thought it would be great on xbox, the demos at launch with Kinect were awesome. What a great way to connect people! Then... sad panda.

I'm fully aware of what the product actually is.
 
Skype is being replaced with Teams. At least for business. We are using it and so far it's not bad. Imagine Skype + Slack. Calls seem to be hit and miss still. You can have both installed and running at the same time currently.
 
MS didn't turn skype into a business product. It is still a stand alone, consumer only product. (I've never used it so i can't comment on how it has changed.)


MS did renamed a older product Microsoft Lync to Skype for Business (and it looks like they are going to change it again!) But it isn't skype, it just use the name. Old skype is still its own product.
That said! from an IT admin side. FU MS for confusing the hell out off all our users (or people we are trying to setup conferencing with) because calling it skype is confusing. skype for business is not skype!
 
Never was a fan of skype, but I do miss Live Messenger. Skype was certainly great for voice calls and all that many years ago. The updates have made it worse and I have no interest in using it anymore.
 
I skype with my Daughter in Okinawa and my Parents in Florida. Why would I want to use any other service, this one works fine and I do not have to buy specialized hardware to use it. (iChat requires Apple devices, period.)
 
Here's the thing: "Skype for Business" is not Skype. It's still Lync. Go to task manager. Right click and "open file location." Surprise: it's Lync!

So who uses the real Skype? Nobody. I thought it would be great on xbox, the demos at launch with Kinect were awesome. What a great way to connect people! Then... sad panda.

Really? So, what do you use on your Xbox One then? I use Skype and it works just fine.
 
Its the MSDT, MS Death Touch.

MS Death Touch = $744 BILLION USD market cap, $200 billion in cash. Everyone would love to die that way.;)

I get that Microsoft makes mistakes, god help us if they didn't.
 
Used Skype since 05 or so and when they sold out to ms, it rapidly went down hill. Latest versions are horrific.
 
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