After Making Skype Convoluted and Difficult To Use, Microsoft is Now Rolling Out Features To Restore Simplicity (thurrott.com) 143
From a report: Microsoft just announced a number of changes the company is rolling out to restore Skype's simplicity and familiarity. When the company introduced the modern Skype, it introduced radical changes that turned the app into an actual, modern app. But of course, that didn't really work too well with some of Skype's classic users. Although Microsoft has made numerous changes to the modern Skype to work better for all users, there were still a bunch of things in the app that no one really needed. And one of that was Highlights -- it was a complete clone of Snapchat where you could post pictures/videos that last for a limited time. Unlike other Snapchat clones like Instagram Stories, no one actually used Skype Highlights. [...] The navigation has been drastically improved, now only consisting of Chats, Calls, and Contacts -- the three core parts of Skype. Along with Highlights, Microsoft's also removed the Capture button which opened the Skype camera -- another useless feature that was already accessible from within chats.
Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
This is honestly Microsoft's biggest UI problem globally with all of their products. And hopefully I can say without getting blasted is why Apple killed the Phone and Tablet markets and Microsoft lost them.
Microsoft needs to expose a very simplistic UI to users, and let them click a "advanced mode" type of button to expose all the nonsense 99% of the users will never use. Fuck. Apple should do the same thing.
Re:Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
THAT's the thing I looking to see.
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They also broke which cameras and OS's it supported. I simply quit using it.
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This isn't new. The old Skype literally didn't support the Microsoft LifeCam and other Microsoft sold shit. MS is clearly IBM v2.0
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Well everyone knows exactly why they had to make the interface convoluted and confusing, to hide the privacy invasive features, where they monitor you calls and analyse them for keywords, and replace them with more suitable advertiser friendly words. Maybe also calling people on your contacts list pretending to be you to sell them what ever.
You know the configuration, that is buried in the bowels of the software, behind 6 different menus, and then behind the configuration warning that you house might blow
Re:Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
I think its too late. Discord is the new Skype.
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For white nationalists. Gamers. Revenge porn. The usual suspects.
By discord the greatest are destroyed (Score:3)
By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.
Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord.
Salust circa 60 BC
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That's because Skype is a full blooded app (at least on non-Linux platforms). So it's able to do a lot. Discord is a website with a elektron/node.js thing using Chromium. Likely due to integrity processing, the Discord app can't download a thing (Windows has a "low integrity mode" for browser processes - this locks down
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Re:Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
Skype for business was Skype in name only. It was a re-branding of their Lync product they felt was necessary after the piles of cash they spent buying Skype.
Re: Microsoft (Score:2)
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Zoom is the new Skype.
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Discord is buggy, especially the update mechanism.
Hangouts is better. Simple, low overhead and the way it handles conference calls is the best implementation I've come across.
Dick-sword more like... (Score:1)
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Because Javascript is the only way to get code running on an iDevice without Apple's approval.
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Got to love Discord's "terms"
By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service.
https://discordapp.com/terms
Free eh? Just give us a license to anything you transmit via Disc
"Advanced Mode" (Score:5, Interesting)
> and let them click a "advanced mode"
"Advanced mode" is always UI speak for "The thing you actually want to do". Let's take the browser I'm typing in for example. The only things I ever want to do in browser settings is (A) Mess with the proxy settings (B) Mess with the certificates and (C) Recover a stored password. Things I don't want to do include everything on the basic settings page of chrome. Everything I might want to do is behind the well obscured "advanced" button.
It's not just chrome. It's everything on Windows and Macs. Thunderbird, firefox, word, excel, skype etc. etc.
At least I have Linux and it's all in a dotfile in my home directory or etc.
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Those things you do frequently. Most people don't do that ever. Basic mode is the stuff everyone needs to find quickly, yes even if they just use it once.
Re: "Advanced Mode" (Score:2)
Well, a HIDDEN dotfile is sort of âadvancedâ(TM), no? But I agree with you on the rest?
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Except that what ultimately happens is MS create a simplistic UI for users .... and then that's it. Skype can't even adjust camera exposure anymore. It has gone from having average video quality to producing an un-usable image.
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I've never experienced a Skype call where the audio wasn't utter shite, and now you want it to do video as well?!?
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I can't agree. I've never had a problem with my audio that wasn't caused by absolutely garbage internet connection (at least not since the days of uPNP and NAT breaking communication) on the transmitting end. In the edge cases when I have experienced audio cases I also had no luck switching to messenger or whatsapp.
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I recently have gotten stuck having to use Outlook 365 as an email client at work. What a convoluted piece o' crap UI it has. It's like they held a contest to see who could design the worst UI, and rolled out the winner on us.
And 99% of the crap in Outlook goes unused by most of my coworkers. A simpler email client would have been fine.
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Their newer versions of Excel and Word are also a convoluted mess with their "ribbons".
I typically load an older version of MSOffice because their UI's are more intuitive.
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Menus may not be "pretty", but they are an excellent way of sorting the available options in a mostly coherent and discoverable manner that a ribbon, a hamburger icon or a random vomit of "is that a button or superfluous decoration" can never hope to achieve.
Unfortunately, however, pretty is apparently more important than practical, discoverable or user friendly.
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Apple does offer an advanced mode on macOS: Cmd+Space, âoeterminalâ, Return.
CMD+space opens Spotlight search.
Re: Microsoft (Score:2)
Cmd-Space âoeitermâ you mean.
All the Apple hating Linux Nerds do not get the power of a great GUI together with a terminal.
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Microsoft should abandon Skype and bring back Netmeeting.
Re: Microsoft (Score:2)
Christ. By that reasoning they should drop Word and push Notepad.
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I knew it (Score:2)
As soon as Microsoft announced they were buying Skype, I knew it would turn into a steaming pile of shit, and I was right. They've ruined it, utterly ruined it.
Now Skype takes forever to load, doesn't show updates, doesn't alert on background communication events, and sometimes it just wants to reinstall over and over and over and over and over.
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Let me guess, you're the type of person who yells at the TV.
Yes, I am exactly like you (except smarter, better looking, and with more savings and disposable income).
How to fix skype (Score:2, Interesting)
1. Restore all the platforms they killed off after acquiring it. It was the defacto standard because it was everywhere. (Linux, tvs, etc)
2. Simplify the client
3. improve call quality. It's absolute garbage at work.
4. Lower bandwidth requirements by using some decent codecs.
5. Make screen sharing actually work on macs. You shouldn't have to reshare 3 times for everyone to see the damn picture.
6. Don't make skype for business a crappy Lync variant and restore the original skype client.
Microsoft is AMAZINGLY self-destructive. (Score:2)
Skype helped develop Opus (Score:2)
Lower bandwidth requirements by using some decent codecs.
Skype's been working on that for quite a while. The company released the SILK codec as free software and worked with Xiph in 2010 to combine it with Xiph's "CELT" research codec to form what is now known as Opus.
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Like in the first world, and have big-boy internets? Too fucking bad, because skype gives you the same shit codec.
NATO vs. Cold War neutral Internet (Score:2)
The NATO "big-boy internets" on your side of the connection won't help if your colleague happens to be in a Cold War neutral country. And even if your country has NATO "big boy internets" inside an urban building, the experience in rural areas (satellite), outdoors, or in a vehicle (cellular) may be more like that of Cold War neutral countries. (I'm talking about the USA, if it matters.)
What were you planning on doing in Skype that needs a higher bandwidth than wideband voice?
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7. (Excuse the raised voice) Restore the ability to call goddamned telephones!!"
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We have never used Skype In, just Skype out to PSTN and cell lines. The calling function still works, at least before this update, but you can't add phone-only contacts or edit the ones you have.
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Reading your post gave me brain cancer. But congrats on spelling "Skype" three different ways in a single sentence.
"I’m not shore"
"dropping odf skyp our hat"
"to to wit regulations"
"reqiereing calls terminated"
"there where kegal reasons"
"Gatways wit enugh capasety"
"not en op in a 95% chance og geting busy due to caoasety"
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He's a Microsoft Skype programmer...
Fix the core problem - making calls doesn't work. (Score:2)
I used to use Skype (personal) and at one of my clients occasionally have to use the "business" app.
Both are fairly horrible, and voice quality can be very variable, even on MegaCorp's private network.
My extended family and friend network abandoned Skype years ago, with most now using WhatsApp, which works really well.
So, fiddle around with the UI if you like MS, but you should fix the call quality first
Skype? Who cares? Dead. (Score:1)
Shortly after MS bought ad fucked up Skype, literally everyone I knew moved on. Only took a few months. Does anyone recall for a while they had device incompatible versions, too? Oh youâ(TM)re on Mac and Iâ(TM)m on Android so we cant talk anymore! How completely fucking stupid did someone have to be to allow that version to ship? And MS official position on their message boards was some crap about how it was better.
It is too damned late. Skype is deader than FreeBSD or desktop Linux.
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Whatsapp.
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FaceTime is a beautifully simple interface that Just Works, provided that you're an Apple user calling another Apple user. Steve Jobs (peace be upon him) promised to open up the interface to all comers, but a patent troll called Virnetx hijacked the FaceTime implementation, forcing Apple to change the implementation to one that cannot be open-sourced.
Simple - Skype Classic (Score:3)
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Just bring back the classic Skype UI, and take old Yeller (Skype for Business) out back and shoot it. Yes, I am still running 7.38.0.101 (classic UI, everything still works), but who knows how long that will remain supported?
And for me it was the opposite: "Skype for Business" was previously Lync, which I was used to and was fine as it was. The whole mess is a trainwreck.
How many times a year does your computer freeze (Score:1)
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Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
New Skype removed many of the features of classic Skype (at least on Linux it sure did), but there were still a few features left. Now we're going to remove the rest of the features, and just for fun we're going to call the removal of features a feature!
Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
^ This.
"Restore simplicity" addresses a problem that doesn't exist. The current UI, particularly in Skype For Linux, is excessive simplicity. I can't configure different audio devices for alerts and voice chat. I can't configure different sounds for different events. I can't configure enabling audio alerts when a reply comes in to a conversation that has focus -- meaning if Skype is in the background and I'm doing something else, I never know there's a reply until hours later.
I had all of those features and more before MSFT bought Skype. I want them back.
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That's because they threw away Skype and put the Skype logo on Lync. There is no skype. It's all Lync.
Skype for business (Score:2)
Microsoft's Skype for business is a buggy pile. It replaced Microsoft's Lync at my firm, which was a buggy pile.
Skype for business is a much buggier pile. I would like to have Lync back, even though I hated it.
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None of this is related to Skype itself. Skype for Business will ultimately be replaced by MS Teams. An equally buggy pile.
Skype is spyware (Score:2)
Adding features != simplicity (Score:1)
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/Oblg. Microsoft Windows, noun 8: A 64-bit compilation of 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition with 0 bit of understanding good UI.
Smart decision (Score:5, Insightful)
Now seriously: I hate the modern dumbing down of UIs. Yes, I understand they're geared towards non geeks and many also designed for touchscreens but at least give us the option to also have a "classic",dense, keyboard-and-mouste-optimized UI. And, at the very least have some way to configure the "advanced" options, even if it's something as ugly as Firefox's "about:config"
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Power users don't need "advanced" options. They edit conf files and reg keys directly.
Skype. (Score:2)
The second they gave me windows I couldn't break off, or shrink, or remove, a ton of extra stuff all popping up, tried to take over my entire screen rather than be a small list of people on the right that I could double-click to talk to someone... I never bothered to run it or update it ever again.
Steam just did the same with Steam Friends but at least I can just close that shit, but it's annoying that when you Shift-Tab or when you load up the program it's back again. Seriously, fuck off with that. I don
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No you don’r want it, but steam wants wery badly to become the next discord for some reason, so sorry you will probably just have to live with it
After 15 years, I need a Skype replacement (Score:2)
I have been a Skype user from the very beginning. At first it was a convenient way of avoiding those high long distance fees we used to have for domestic calls. Remember when we had to choose a "long distance provider" for our PSTN landlines?
When Skype added subscription plans for foreign cell and landline phones, we sprang for the pricey world plan, to communicate with our plethora of overseas relatives. All but two of these people are too old to have ever heard of anything beyond landlines, so that arrang
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I miss powwow (Score:2)
Between Telegram, Viber, and LINE, why use Skype? (Score:2)
All three apps I listed are better than Skype. Especially Viber. There is no good reason using that flaming pile of excrement called Skype.
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I like to use webrtc sites like appear.in. No signup, just send a link and you're having a video chat.
Get basic functions working first (Score:2)
I have no problem with its UI. My complaint is basic stuff like Search messages need to function properly. I can enter a term that I know is in my history but it doesn't find it--or if it does, it's incomplete. If you were to scroll back into history, the farther you scroll, the less it loads as it "waits" for the old entries from the cloud to come in. I don't really care about emojis which could be disabled in v7. These things makes it much less useful from v7.
A workaround to the search is your entire hist
Hey I've got an idea (Score:2)
How about calling it "MSN Messenger"?
Seriously the photo sharing in that was perfect.
Combine it with TeamView (Score:2)
Personally, I'd like to see TeamView melded into Skype for those involved tech support sessions where you need to converse with someone and control their computer at the same time.
London phone number (Score:1)
ICQ is still going! (Score:1)
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30ms from you to where? I get about that from me (Arendal in Norway) to amsix ( about 1200KM and 15 hops away (not on wifi tho)
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As much as I disslike dissagreeing with you, no, the simplest technology(from the users prospective) for voice communication anyway, was the old landline with a harwiered tekephone and here is why,: you needed exactly one pece of info for contacting snyone, their phone number, Ok things cot a bit more complex when they lived in another country, then yo had to find the prefix for their country and the internationale prefix that your countrys pstn used to indicate an international call, but once you had the f
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