Microsoft Working On Skype Teams, Its Slack Competitor (mspoweruser.com) 76
Earlier this year, we heard rumors that Microsoft was interested in purchasing the popular team-chat app Slack for as much as $8 billion. The deal never happened, so naturally, Microsoft has decided to make a Slack-like app. Microsoft-centric news blog MSPowerUser reports: Meet Skype Teams. Skype Teams is going to be Microsoft's take on messaging apps for teams. Skype Teams will include a lot of similar features which you'll find on Slack. For example, Skype Teams will allow you to chat in different groups within a team, also known as "channels". Additionally, users will be able to talk to each other via Direct Messages on Skype Teams. Skype Teams will also feature Threaded Conversations, which is a major feature that's lacking on Slack. With Threaded Conversations, you can simply reply to a message on a channel by clicking on the reply button and anyone else can join the thread whenever they want -- just like Facebook Comments, or Disqus Comments. Microsoft, of course, isn't leaving out some of the core features of Skype on Skype Teams. Similar to Skype itself, teams will be able to make video calls in a channel or privately. To take this even further, the company is adding the ability to schedule online meetings, which can be quite useful for large teams.
Unsubscribe (Score:2, Insightful)
Unsubscribe, please.
Where is Slack video? (Score:4, Informative)
Slack is already pretty established and so I would think Microsoft would have a hard time here...
Except that Slack still doesn't support group (or any) video.
Not that Skype video was all that great, and I fear for the quality of group video there... but something is better than nothing (or at least probably better than Hangouts which some teams I've been on used).
Slack needs a kick in the balls to improve so I'm glad someone has come along to do the kicking.
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Microsoft goal is to incorporate it into O365 to increase it's value. Something Skype For Business Online doesn't have is persistent chat which is pretty critical feature. If Microsoft could make Slack like replacement for O365, that would mean some of our customers can get rid of their Slack Subscription.
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Yes. we've used Hangouts before, but the integration is really poor and the quality sucks so hard that most times we all had to switch to audio only.
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Slack is already pretty established and so I would think Microsoft would have a hard time here...
Microsoft won't have a hard time here.
Skype Teams will be part of Skype for Business, and Skype for Business is part of Office 365, and many/most companies buy their employees O365 subscriptions. Thus, Skype Teams will be "free". Companies will choose the "free" option because they're too stupid to realize that sometimes paying for something saves them money in the long run.
Microsoft is just leveraging their Office monopoly to crush a competitor. You know, business as usual.
It's unfortunate, because Slack i
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Everything new UX designers touch gets so bloated... The Slack client feels as if it itself is Google Chrome, and it is the only non-browser I've seen which takes process delegation to the extremes only reserved by that or all the other bloated browsers.
It takes SEVERAL 70-100 MB processes for a single session and in workplaces such as mine there were more than 2 official instances. I had a 4GB (3GB available thanks to 32-bit OS) last year and when loading Skype (100MB), Outlook (120MB), Firefox (1.2GB whe
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That is because the Slack client literally is Google Chrome. [electron.atom.io]
Hell no (Score:5, Insightful)
No thank you. Between their wanktastic Lync/Skype For Business product, butchering Skype, their barely functional netmeeting, and their original Access product that was so terrible that they gave up and re-used the name for their equally bad database product, Microsoft has a long and cherished history of putting out collaboration software that makes fingerpainting in a bucket filled with phlegm, vomit, and diarrhea, a viable alternative.
I'll stick with Slack, TYVM.
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It's cute how you just automatically assume that I'm not in the "real business world", just because you were lucky enough to have a trouble-free Lync experience.
We have a client that uses Lync. The number of issues I have seen have basically guaranteed that I will *never ever* use Lync. Between connection drops, not being able to connect at all when people are on different networks, to screensharing not working right... and woe is you if you have to use the Mac version. They've dropped the ball so badly
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You forgot SharePoint which is horrifically bad...
Core Features (Score:3)
Microsoft, of course, isn't leaving out some of the core features of Skype on Skype Teams.
Like NSA back doors. For your safety, of course.
Laughable (Score:3, Insightful)
"Those who do not understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it. Poorly." comes to mind, i.e. "Reinventing the square wheel", a well known sign how Microsoft performs business decisions. Does not invent, just makes poor implementations of other existing inventions, then pushed out with windows as a critical non-stoppable update (as Skype was).
Look at the MS smart phone for another example. Does it has 0.1% market share still? Late to market, and poorly implemented.
There's already "Skype for Work", why is a third parallel implementation of a sucky app needed? Fix the first two instead! _Do one thing an do it well_
Re:Laughable (Score:4, Funny)
Having used a Windows 10 mobile device (an 8" tablet), all i can say is I now fully understand why Windows smart devices are collecting dust. The interface is, for lack of a better colorful metaphor, just plain fucking awful on small devices. I have a 13.3" Dell ultralight where the touch display is fairly usable as a tablet, but below, say, 10 inches, Windows 10 is by far the worst touch experience I've ever had, and that includes the really low end shitty touch displays. At the moment, my only real plan is to hook it up to my TV and a portable 2tb external drive and a Bluetooth keyboard and use it as a media machine, because, compared to my four year old Nexus 7, it is a supreme steaming pile of shit as a tablet.
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Wow that site looks like slashdot beta.
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Yup, I guess HipChat isn't "hip" anymore. :-)
Not just IRC but IM too. It has been that way since at least the ICQ days. I laugh at MS's incompetence:
Hey MS, how is that Office Communicator, Lync [wikipedia.org], and Live Messenger working out for you? Gee, how about getting _one_ messaging app to work properly first.
How many fucking times does IRC and IM's "need" to be re-invented???
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IRC had this 30 years ago.
I'm not sure if you're comparing IRC to Slack, or comparing IRC to Slack for Business. I'll assume you're comparing IRC to Slack.
As a very (very) long time IRC user, and before IRC was even invented, a multi-user BBS (with chat) user, I think I "know" online chat fairly well.
Slack offers some killer features IRC just plain lacks, like persistent chat (you can sign off for a few days, sign back in, and see all the messages you missed).
It also has "just works", and beautiful, web, iOS, and Android clients, an
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Code Snippets. I work at a development start-up. Code snippets are my favorite feature of Slack.
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I love IRC. Have you used Slack, though? Think about why the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was popular: it was friendly and non-threatening. Same with Slack, really: even if it functions like IRC, it looks absolutely nothing like your favorite IRC client. Anyone in the company can start using it with basically zero training. It's pretty, brightly colored, approachable, and discoverable. HipChat could have won that space but their UI felt like they wrapped IRC in Java and called it a day.
Slack's made a
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If you never use the product, you'll probably form stupid opinions about it. Slack supports plugins. The command given above for video is available via a plugin, which Slack knows about and gives you a link to install when you invoke the given command.
(They aren't plugins in the browser-sense, but I don't know what Slack calls them.)
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Slack has been replacing IRC in many environments namely open source projects. It's easier to build a community without the wankers jumping in and being a royal PITA. IRC is great except for the rebel scum. Slack builds communities and it actually does offer IRC integration if IRC is your bag. Pretty sure Slack is mostly IRC under the hood.
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Well, it's a pretty good replacement for IRC, which was designed more like 30 years ago, so I'll take it. Having worked at places that coordinated using IRC this is much much better.
Quantity Versus Quality (Score:1)
Quantity: we need a new app!
Quality: let us improve the existing app!
I'd rather just improve IRC.
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Then get on that. Make an improved IRC that integrates with dozens of other web services with a few clicks. You'll have a product worth $8B!
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Slack is actually a reasonably useable modern version of IRC without having to load a shit ton of bots and plugins, but where it wins is it's ability to integrate with so many other services, such as ScreenHero, Jenkins, JIRA, etc.
There's probably Slack integrations for most of the other tools you're already using, and it's a few clicks on some web pages rather than hours of installing bots or screwing around with conf files - this is where Slack becomes more than just IRC.
So much for Yammer...... (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternate Title: Microsoft working on next failure (Score:2)
Here Comes The Bloat (Score:3, Funny)
In the time since Microsoft has taken over Skype, the app has grown in size and appears to have slightly better picture/sound quality.
Now that they have free reign to add all the buzzword features, it will soon grow in size to one petabyte. At that point, Microsoft will make Windows a service within Skype, and run it all on Linux, completely confounding us all as their maniacal laughter rings out in the grottoes and caverns where they worship dark evil gods.
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370MB on my machine. For a fucking messaging program.
Hey MS, here's an idea... (Score:1)
How 'bout first unfuck Skype, then unfuck OCS/Lync, then build an unfucked bridge between them both, and then, if it's ever working, start building new shit (to fuck up again)...?!?!?
My friends moved to Discord for VoIP (Score:3)
We still use Skype for DM, but all voice chat now goes over Discord as Skype had a habit of throwing us out of full screen when people joined/left the conversation. We are fairly casual gamers and form groups based on whoever is online, so it's not unusual for someone to join late or leave early. Also you can easily adjust volume per participant, which lets you decide your own mix if someone is being loud or quiet or talking too close/far from the mic. Otherwise the sound quality has been pretty equal and we pretty much never close connection, so it's not like Skype is bad... but it's not the best.
Discord (Score:2)
Yammer (Score:4, Insightful)
Wasn't Yammer supposed to be a competitor for Slack? Didn't MS buy them just for that?
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Brahmin MBA.
They don't come any dumber.
A new Linux version of skype would be nice (Score:2)
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Every new version for Android is _worse_ than the previous.
Keep your old version. I bet it, at least, rings when you get a call.
Skype for Business for Mac? (Score:1)
It's September, and this product was supposed to be out this Summer...
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The beta is not bad now, I don't notice any missing functionality.
I did have my computer run out of memory once while SfB was running, but I don't know if that was the cause. Otherwise it's worked just fine.
Plenty of "Slack Competitors" already (Score:2)
Rocket.Chat [rocket.chat] and MatterMost [mattermost.org] come to mind.
Glad I can keep using Slack as-is (Score:2)
Damn great, and love that I can use IRC clients since it his just IRC
not interested (Score:2)
Skype as an IM app has been awful for around 13 years. I'm just too familiar with the spinning skype wheel of death to take this seriously. Most other IM apps (such as Slack or HipChat)... you know... let you chat... and they do it consistently!
please first fix the old skype you broke (Score:1)
I like (Score:2)
Sunrise Again (Score:1)
Let's just hope they don't buy Slack out and then 'integrate' it into their preexisting software like they do with everything else.